Second half does it for Farmington
FARMINGTON 55, MORRILTON 47
BLYTHEVILLE — Farmington Coach Brad Johnson believed his team would take a lick or two early Saturday against Morrilton.
Fortunately for him, his team swung back.
The Lady Cardinals put together a strong second half and got a big fourth quarter from Jenna Lawrence to outlast the Lady Devil Dogs 55-47 in the semifinals of the Class 4A girls state tournament at Chickasaw Arena.
Lawrence scored nine of her 17 points over the final eight minutes for Farmington (35-1), which booked a spot in the state finals for the fourth consecutive year and will get a chance at redemption when they take on defending champion Nashville at noon Thursday inside Bank OZK Arena in Hot Springs.
Still, the Lady Cardinals got all they wanted, and then some, from Morrilton (29-5).
“They are so good defensively, and we’ve seen that out of them during the course of the year,” Johnson said of the Lady Devil Dogs. “They’ve been good for a long time, and that’s a credit to Coach [Carin] McNabb. It was back and forth the first half, and I thought they came out and really gave us a pretty good punch to the mouth right out the gate.
“I thought our kids answered to kind of get us to halftime. And that’s when I just told them we’ve got 16 minutes because it’s dead even. We had to go be better for 16 minutes, and I thought we responded.”
Both teams played to a draw for the first two quarters. Neither Farmington nor Morrilton held a lead of more than five points in the half, and there were five ties in the second quarter — the final one coming on a pair of free throws from Reese Shirey that enabled the Lady Cardinals to knot the game at 25-25 at halftime.
Unlike the opening half, Farmington became more of the aggressor after the break.
“I did think we kind of went on the attack,” Johnson explained. “We tried to get the ball in the paint a lot because I felt like that could be an advantage for us. Also, we rebounded the ball a lot better because [Morrilton] owned the boards in the first half.
“But by doing that, we limited their second chances, and that can flip a game in itself.”
While the Lady Cardinals were much more active inside, the Lady Devil Dogs had a tough time making anything. Morrilton was 1 of 10 (10%) shooting in the third quarter, including misses on its last seven shots.
The Lady Devils Dogs were still able to hang around and trailed 38-33 with 7:10 to go in the game after Johnna Brockman, who was saddled with foul trouble for much of the contest, scored on a putback. Morrilton was never able to crack that five-point barrier for the remainder of the game.
It was 46-41 with 2:01 remaining when Lawrence hit two free throws to start a 9-for-12 (75%) stretch from the free-throw line over the final two minutes to close it out for the Lady Cardinals.
J’Myra London added 10 points for Farmington, which has now won 25 games in a row. Shirey and Zoey Bershers each had eight points.
Cheyanne Kemp led Morrilton with a game-high 17 points. Jennifer Hartman finished with 12 points, and Brockman ended with nine points.
NASHVILLE 57, GENTRY 39
Lauren Carver piled up 17 points, 12 rebounds and 4 steals to help defending champion Nashville (29-3) roll.
Kyleigh Scoggins added 9 points, and Jessie Lyle had 8 for the Scrapperettes, who shot 22 of 65 (33.8%), held a 4225 rebounding advantage and forced 19 turnovers.
Alyssa McCarty scored 23 points, and Kaitlyn Caswell ended with 10 points for Gentry (25-11). The Lady Pioneers were 13 of 43 (30.2%) from the floor.