Farmington falls short against Little Rock Parkview

LR PARKVIEW 62, FARMINGTON 56

MAUMELLE — Farmington’s girls appeared to be on their way to the Class 5A State Tournament semifinals with 12 minutes remaining Friday afternoon.

A few minutes later, the Lady Cardinals found themselves in trouble and never recovered.

Little Rock Parkview ran off 17 unanswered points to take the lead for good, and the Lady Patriots ended Farmington’s season by taking a 62-56 decision in Hornet Gymnasium.

“Obviously, we would like to replay those 6 minutes if we could,” Farmington coach Brad Johnson said. “It’s like I told our kids: that stretch of 6 minutes doesn’t define the season. We’ve had a lot of difficult situations, from illness to tragedy. This group kept rallying every single day.

“That’s a level of toughness I’ve never seen before. It hurts now and hurts all of us. But in a few weeks when the sting wears off, these kids will go back and look at this season, look at this team and be proud of it for the rest of their lives. God knows I’m proud of them and go to war with them every single day.”

Farmington (26-6) had stretched a 30-23 halftime lead into a 41-29 cushion after Madisyn Pense hit a pair of 3-pointers, and the Lady Cardinals still had a 43-34 cushion after Alexis Roach’s bucket with 3 minutes, 12 seconds left in the third quarter. Farmington, however, wouldn’t score again until Joelle Tidwell hit two free throws with 5:18 remaining.

It was the break Parkview (20-9) needed. The Lady Patriots closed out the third quarter with 12 unanswered points and took a 46-43 lead on Mikayla Alexander’s three-point play, then started the fourth quarter with a 3-pointer by Kania Lasker and a bucket by Jaida Bangura for a 51-43 cushion.

“We had a couple of costly turnovers,” Johnson said. “They got to the bucket two or three times, and they got some open looks that way. We also got into some foul trouble, and all of that compounded.

“We had some shots that didn’t fall during that time, and that’s the game of basketball. Sometimes you’re going to miss those shots. We also missed some at the freethrow line, which is a little uncharacteristic. At the state tournament level, sometimes that happens.”

Makenna Vanzant, which had just one point through the first three quarters, connected on a pair of threepoint plays to pull Farmington within 57-54 with 55 seconds left, but that was as close as the Lady Cardinals could get.

Roach finished with 15 for Farmington, followed by Pense with 14 and Vanzant with 10. Lasker led Parkview with 18, while Alexander added 16 and Bangura 12.

LR Parkview....... 7 16 23 16 — 62 Farmington ....... 12 18 13 13 — 56 LR Parkview (20-9): Lasker 18, Alexander 16, Bangura 12, Larry 9, McGraw 5, Williams 1, Grant 1. Farmington (26-6): Roach 15, Pense 14, Vanzant 10, Tidwell 6, Journagan 5, Jones 4, Ball 2.

NETTLETON 75, VILONIA 60

Nettleton closed the third quarter on an 8-2 run to slip away from Vilonia to win its 11th game in a row.

Junior guard Mya Love scored a team-high 19 points for Nettleton (302), which shot 15 of 25 in the second half to advance to today’s semifinals. Senior guard Jordan Elder had 18 points, junior forward Dasia Young had 10, and senior forward Bailey Booker also had 10 for the Lady Raiders.

Junior forward Paige Kelley scored 23 points for Vilonia (25-6), which was 12 of 21 after halftime but didn’t have enough to keep up. Freshman guard Lauren Patterson had 14 points, and freshman Laney Mears finished with 11.

WATSON CHAPEL 58, LITTLE ROCK CHRISTIAN 49

Guards Wyvette Mayberry and Taylor Whitted combined to hit 8 of 10 free throws over the final 1:09 to allow Watson Chapel (27-4) to beat Little Rock Christian for the second time this season.

Senior guard Jakhiyah Boston had 16 points, and senior forward Jerica Bell had 14 points and 11 rebounds for the Lady Wildcats, who went 18 of 42 from the floor and outrebounded the Lady Warriors 35-24. Whitted finished with 12 points and Mayberry had 9 points, 9 rebounds, 6 assists and 4 steals.

Junior guard Reagan Bradley had 19 points, 8 rebounds and 5 steals for Little Rock Christian (29-3). Freshman forward Wynter Rogers scored 13 points and pulled down 6 rebounds. The Lady Warriors finished the night 14-of-49 shooting, including 5 of 22 in the second half.