Impressive defense takes away home-court advantage in Lady Beavers’ win over Drew Central 32-29 for state tourney qualifying game at regionals
STAFFORD POURS 12 POINTS FOR DOUBLE-FIGURES TO SURGE LADY BEAVERS PAST DREW CENTRAL
MONTICELLO — In the biggest game of the season to determined their postseason hopes next week Thursday night, the No. 2 seed Glen Rose Lady Beavers overcame the home-court advantage and prevailed 32-29 against the No. 3 seed Drew Central Lady Pirates in the 3A-4 Sr. Girls Regional Basketball Tournament hosted at Drew Central High School Gymnasium in Monticello.
The Lady Beavers secured their spot in the 2023 Class 3A State Tournament with more business to handle on the hardwood as postseason contenders in senior high girls basketball competition.
The Lady Beavers were in a fight to the end Thursday night but utilized their defense to contain an athletic squad with size and height of the Lady Pirates in their regional first round match-up.
Drew Central fed off the early momentum from their home crowd to jump out to a 5-0 lead in the first quarter. But, the Lady Beavers answered with Makayla Stevens snatching a huge rebound for a put-back around the paint area that put Glen Rose on the scoreboard—trailing 5-2 at the 5:44 mark.
Then, Ashlee Stafford followed up with a put-back to cut the Lady Beavers deficit to a one-point contest at 5-4 with 5:03 to play in the opening period. From that point, the Lady Beavers took charge in the first period and coasted on a 12-2 run from the 5:44 mark. Stafford drilled a triple and scored from the field while Maci Carver drained a triple to surge Glen Rose to a 12-5 lead over Drew Central to end the first quarter.
The Lady Beavers maintained a seven-point lead going into the second quarter. The Lady Pirates rallied back and outscored the Lady Beavers 12-7 in the second quarter. Despite the Lady Beavers held under double-digits in the second, Glen Rose stayed in command with a slim two-point lead at halftime over Drew Central, 19-17. In the second half, the defensive intensity took its course by both ball teams with a total of four points scored in the third quarter. The Lady Beavers defense held Drew Central to only one point scored which came at the charity stripe. That lone point was scored the entire seven minutes of third quarter play with Drew Central trailing 19-18. But, under a minute the Lady Beavers found a spark and in the closing seconds Sydney Riggan drilled a triple from the top of the key to ignite a huge buzzer-beater shot to give Glen Rose a 22-18 lead at the end of the third period.
In the fourth, the Lady Beavers had a four-point advantage to start the period and key buckets from Stevens and Stafford increased Glen Rose’s margin to an eightpoint lead—26-18 down to the 6:26 mark.
But suddenly, Drew Central made a run and journeyed back to sink three foul shots and connected two field goals from the floor to come within one-point of Glen Rose’s lead—26-25 with 3:10 left to play. In the final three minutes of action, the game began to stay intense with the pressure rolling high for both clubs with their seasons’ on the line.
Stafford would sink two foul shots for the Lady Beavers’ first points scored since the 6:26 mark. This gave Glen Rose a 28-25 lead, but the Lady Pirates split a pair of free-throws to stay within striking distance and trailed the Lady Beavers 28-26 with 2:35 left to play.
With the two minute mark almost coming up, the Lady Beavers’ Carver scored underneath the basket for a strong finish as Glen Rose was able to beat the full-court press applied by Drew Central. Now, the Lady Beavers pushed their lead up to 30-26 as time would become the factor from this point.
As both teams held each other scoreless for the next minute and a half, the Lady Beavers held the lead. But with under a minute to play, Drew Central was sent to the foul line and hit 1-of-2 free-throws to trail 30-27 with 23.9 seconds remaining. Then Lady Pirates sparked and scored a bucket to trail 30-29 with .12 seconds to play and only had a one-point deficit.
Drew Central would be forced to foul which sent Glen Rose to the foul line in order to have a chance.
But the pressure didn’t affect the Lady Beavers with seniors’ Stafford and Stevens both making trips to the foul line and sinking a free-throw to push their lead in the one-and-one bonus. With 3.8 seconds remaining, not enough time was left for the Lady Pirates and the Lady Beavers would secure the victory to clinch their spot for the state tournament in Lamar.
For the game, Stafford led all scorers with 12 points as the only player in double-figures. Carver followed with eight points and knocked down two triples from beyond the arc. Riggan added seven points and Stevens finished with five points. Stafford and Riggan both nailed a 3-pointer to display some productive outside shooting.
The Lady Beavers improved to 22-7 overall and will continue regional tournament play today at Drew Central High School in Monticello.
Glen Rose basketball head coach Devin Jones has now led both senior high boys and girls teams to a state tournament appearance in his first year coaching the girls. Jones led the Beavers to the state tournament in a previous season and Thursday’s regional tournament victory marks the first for the Lady Beavers during his reign as head coach over the senior high girls basketball program at Glen Rose.