CHERRY TWP — Alazia Greaves is tired of the talk swirling around the Moniteau girls basketball team’s loss to Karns City two weeks ago.

The Warriors have won five straight games — including a 50-36 KSAC South Division home win over A-C Valley Thursday night at Moniteau — but the conversation always comes back to their 52-4 loss.

That bothers Greaves.

“It does, to a point. It’s also motivation to do better,” Greaves said. “We know that people are going to talk, but we know we’re better than that.”

Moniteau (11-5, 4-1) has shown that over its winning streak.

The Warriors have won by an average of 20.8 points, with the closest being a 46-42 last Friday against Clarion.

“After that game (Karns City), we kept telling the girls one day at a time, one game at a time,” Moniteau coach Matt Stebbins said. “That’s what we’ve done. Officially tonight, we clinch playoffs according to our school rules. That’s good to do early in the year.”

Against A-C Valley (10-5, 2-4), the Warriors wanted to be aggressive defensively. The Falcons were playing their third straight game due to postponements from earlier in the season.

A-C Valley struggled to find an offensive rhythm, shooting 14 percent (1-of-7) from the field in the first quarter.

“This is our third game in a week, in a row, back-to-back,” Falcons coach Dave Sherman said. “But we were tired, I think. We weren’t as physical as them tonight. We’re usually physical in the paint.”

Despite its early offensive woes, A-C Valley led 6-5 with 1:31 left in the first quarter after two free throws from Morgan Cratty.

Kristina DeMatteis put Moniteau ahead for good with a layup 24 seconds later.

That started a 6-0 run that put the Warriors ahead 11-6 with 7:04 left before halftime.

By halftime, Moniteau was ahead 26-15.

“Our goal was to run them, we know they are tired and we wanted to get our hands on them because they might be a little weak,” senior forward Stephanie McCall said. “We wanted to play hard defense on them.”

DeMatteis, who scored a game-high 22 points and had seven rebounds, had to sit during the third quarter with three fouls.

McCall, who recorded a double-double with 12 points and 12 rebounds, and Greaves (14 points) stepped in to keep the offense afloat.

Greaves made two of her four treys during the third quarter.

Moniteau freshman Emma Bair filled in inside.

“We were looking to get the ball inside, make a post move and if everyone crashes down make the outside shot,” Greaves said. “We needed some height. We brought in Emma and she has the height for it.”

The Warriors pushed their lead to a game-high 15 points, 40-25, early in the fourth quarter on a layup by DeMatteis.

Danielle Kaufman led the Falcons with 10 points.

A-C VALLEY 36

Ellie Thompson 2 4-4 8, Sadie Longo 3 0-0 7, Morgan Cratty 2 2-2 6, Erin Logue 1 1-2 3, Danielle Kaufman 5 0-2 10, Kiersten Roth 0 0-0 0. Totals: 14 7-11 36.

MONITEAU 50

Kristina DeMatteis 8 6-6 22, Alazia Greaves 4 2-2 14, Alycia Brehm 0 0-0 0, Stephanie McCall 4 4-7 12, Sara Hull 0 0-0 0, Cortney Claypoole 1 0-0 2, Kara Mentel 0 0-0 0, Emma Bair 0 0-0 0. Totals: 17 12-16 50.

A-C Valley 6 9 8 13 — 36

Moniteau9 17 10 13 — 49

3-point goals: A-C Valley 1 (Longo); Moniteau 4 (Greaves 4)

Monday: Karns City at A-C Valley; Moniteau at Keystone