Kirby 49, Viola 42
CLASS 1A GIRLS
KIRBY 49, VIOLA 42
HOT SPRINGS — When things weren’t going the way Robert Tucker envisioned in the first half for his Kirby Lady Trojans, the longtime coach instructed his team to do the one thing it had done consistently throughout the season.
“Just keep battling,” he said. “We battled to hit shots just to keep us in the game in the first half, but that’s what we’ve done all year. We just had to continue to do that, stick with it.”
The Lady Trojans did that and more to capture the program’s second state title.
Kirby used a 15-2 run in the third quarter to wipe out a sixpoint deficit, then scored 10 of the game’s final 12 points to beat Viola 49-42 in the Class 1A girls state championship game Thursday afternoon at Bank OZK Arena.
Senior guard Gigi Davis scored a team-high 15 points while Kaylee Dougan, also a senior, added 10 points for Kirby (39-5), which shot 25% (6 of 24) in the first half and trailed 25-21 at intermission. The Lady Trojans didn’t fret, and stuck with what Tucker insisted got them to the title game.
“We came together as a team, and we’ve done that for 44 games,” said Tucker, who led Kirby to its first state crown in 2010. “Trust me, that’s a long grind for them to have to deal with me for that long. But they’ve shown what they can do, and I’m so proud of them.”
What the Lady Trojans did was ride a strong second half from MVP McKenzie Jones to snatch the game away from the Lady Longhorns.
Viola (39-3) did a good job of keeping the ball out of her hands in the first half. The 6-0 junior center, who averaged nearly 21 points in her three previous state tournament games, also picked up two quick fouls and didn’t score her first points until she knocked down two free throws with 2:20 left in the second quarter. But Jones had a hand in Kirby’s first three baskets of the third quarter, scoring on two and assisting on another, to get the Lady Trojans going.
“We tried to take it at her as much as we could, whether it was throwing it in the post or driving,” Viola Coach Robert Hughes said in reference to his team’s strategy against Jones. “We were fortunate to get some calls early on her. But she did a good job playing without fouling for the rest of the game once they brought her back in, and that definitely made a difference.”
Davis shouldered much of the scoring load in the first half with 11 points for Kirby. Her three-pointer with 3:33 to go in the opening quarter gave the Lady Trojans a 10-5 lead before Viola took off.
A tip-in from senior forward Braidlyn Fierce started an 11-0 run that spilled over into the second quarter for the Lady Longhorns. A short bucket from junior forward Lindsey Browning with 56 seconds left led to Viola’s four-point halftime lead. Fierce scored the first basket of the third quarter, but the Lady Trojans countered with their tide-turning rally.
“My mindset was just to keep going,” said Jones, who had 6 points and 4 rebounds during Kirby’s 13-point run and ended the game with 8 points and 9 rebounds. “Keep going up, keep my head straight, keep my hands up and don’t foul. I had to look for other stuff like drive and kick-out … just keep going.”
Kirby led 39-31, but junior guard Sami McCandlis nailed back-to-back three-pointers toward the end of the third to pull Viola within one. Senior guard Keyaira Moore buried another three to start the fourth quarter for the Lady Longhorns until a Davis jumper ignited Kirby’s finishing eight-point run. The Lady Longhorns hit 8 of 11 free throws in the last 3:08 to close it out.
“It was just a phenomenal game,” Tucker said. “In the second half, we showed a lot of heart and resilience. We got some defensive stops and made some big plays offensively, but I think down the stretch, the free throws were big.”
Freshman guard A.J. McCandlis scored 16 points, and Fierce finished with 9 points and 7 rebounds for Viola, which made just 2 of 9 shots in the fourth quarter. The Lady Longhorns shot 16 of 39 (41%) for the game and were outrebounded 31-21.
Kirby was only 13 of 40 (32.5%) from the floor but came away with 12 steals.