Vilonia has made a home in the championship game of the St. Joseph Classic.

The Lady Eagles advanced to Saturday’s title match with a 58-46 victory over a scrappy ballclub from Clinton. Even though the Lady Eagles won by 12, the score was closer than it appeared.

“Clinton has a very good team and they have that good post player,” Vilonia coach Alvin Riley said. “They have a good inside game, and they have three really good shooters. That poses a problem for us because they can go inside, and then they can go back outside.”

For Clinton (4-1), Whitney Donohue was the leader in points with 16, and rebounds with nine. She was the only player that finished in double figures for Clinton. Vilonia had four players that cracked the double-digit mark in the scoring category.

“I thought we did a really good job of having balanced scoring,” Riley said. “Overall, I thought our defense played well. We got lost a couple of times and they were able to make the shot. But, overall we played good, especially late when we decided to go man.”

Vilonia’s Kaylyn Rappold nailed four three-points, and ended with a game-high 16 points. The Lady Eagles’ Catherine Puckett was an inside presence, who came up with much-needed rebounds on the defensive end. Puckett finished with 14 points. Bailey Sisson led the team with six assists, and ended up with 13 points. Also, for Vilonia Heather Brantley scored 13.

“We look forward to it and we’re expecting a good game,” Riley said, referring to the championship game. “We’re just going to go out and play it like it’s any other game. We’ll try to play hard and take it one goal at a time. Hopefully, my girls will play hard and give great effort. Hopefully, we can come out on top in the next game, but if we don’t, I’m sure that we’ll play hard.”