Still leads Gentry against Pea Ridge
4A-1 GIRLS GENTRY 51, PEA RIDGE 44
GENTRY — The first time Gentry’s girls built a substantial lead Friday night, Pea Ridge found a way to erase it.
Shelby Still made sure it didn’t happen again.
The senior scored 18 of her 22 points in the second half and lifted the Lady Pioneers to a 51-44 victory over the Lady Blackhawks during the 4A-1 Conference opener for both teams at Pioneer Gym.
“I don’t know how many she ended up with in the second half,” Gentry Coach Toby Tevebaugh said. “She was just in the right place in the right time and scored some tough buckets. We finally started making some free throws a lot better in the second half.
“There is a group of us that are in the hunt for maybe that second spot [in the conference]. Getting a win over one of them is really nice.”
Kaitlyn Caswell broke a 2222 deadlock on a bucket with 5:40 remaining in the third quarter before Still went to work. She finished the quarter with 11 of the Lady Pioneers’ 17 points and helped them take a 35-28 lead into the final 8 minutes of play.
Still added another bucket to start the fourth quarter and give Gentry (10-1, 1-0) a nine-point cushion, but Pea Ridge (7-6, 0-1) scored nine of the next 11 points and pulled within 39-37 on Makenzie Stites’ three-pointer with 4:32 remaining. But Still scored the next five points to make it a seven-point game again, and the Lady Pioneers secured it by hitting seven of eight free throws n the closing minutes.
Gentry jumped out to a 12-0 lead and caused Pea Ridge to use two timeouts before the Lady Blackhawks could get untracked. Brooklyn Winn’s two three-pointers made it 12-6 at the end of the first quarter, and Pea Ridge took an 18-17 lead on Mia Dayberry’s three-pointer midway through the second quarter before Gentry tied it at 18-18 with a Caswell free throw.
“Pea Ridge, I think, was a little rattled early but they settled in,” Tevebaugh said. “Then we became a little rattled there, I think. It was a good, tough game and Pea Ridge has a history of playing us well at home. We were lucky to beat them here in double overtime last year, so we expected a tough game.”
Brynn Cordeiro added 15 points and Caswell 10 for Gentry, which resumes league play Tuesday at Prairie Grove. Makenna Ward had 10 points for Pea Ridge, which hosts Farmington in a conference game Tuesday.
BOYS PEA RIDGE 81, GENTRY 51
Pea Ridge outscored Gentry 18-7 over the final 5 minutes, and the Blackhawks cruised to a win in their 4A-1 Conference opener.
The Pioneers (0-9, 0-1) hit three early three-pointers, including one by Nehemiah Harrington to tie the game at 9-9 with 5:07 left in the first quarter. Pea Ridge (11-2, 1-0) then scored nine unanswered points to take control and went on to lead 27-16 to end the first quarter, then extended it to 49-26 at halftime and 70-37 after three quarters.
Skye Davenport had 19 points to lead the Blackhawks. Anthoni Ayala was next with 16, followed by Ben Wheeler with 12, J.B. Bledsoe with 11 and Zion Whitmore with 10. Garrett Jech had 16 for Gentry.