Balanced Vilonia finds enough to edge Batesville

CLASS 5A

VILONIA 67, BATESVILLE 63

HOT SPRINGS — It’s been nearly two months since Vilonia lost.

In the time since, the Lady Eagles have ripped off 11 consecutive victories, swept their regular-season series with Russellville and twice knocked off the Greenwood team that beat them Jan. 15, including 10 days ago in the 5A-West title game.

They weren’t ready to let that run come to an end Saturday.

For the first time since 2014, Vilonia will be playing in the state semifinals after holding off a late Batesville charge for a 67-63 victory in the Class 5A state quarterfinals in Trojan Arena. The Lady Eagles were balanced on the offensive end while holding Lady Pioneers senior Isabella Higginbottom to 18 points just two days after she scored a state-playoff-record 57 against Little Rock Parkview.

Laney Mears logged a team-high 13 points on just six shots to spearhead the Vilonia attack.

“It’s huge for us to get to this point,” Vilonia Coach Jeremy Simon said of reaching the final four. “The seniors have made the quarters but they hadn’t made the semis yet, so I knew getting past this game was going to be tough, especially playing against a team of Batesville’s caliber.”

Vilonia (25-2) will play West Memphis in Monday’s semifinals.

Vilonia, who had nine girls play as well as score, took control of the game early. The Lady Eagles raced out to an 18-8 lead before a Higginbottom three-pointer pulled Batesville back within single digits at the end of the opening quarter.

Although the Lady Pioneers canned four three-pointers in the second quarter to trail by just a half-dozen at the break, the Lady Eagles were pleased with their defense — Batesville shot just 9 of 22 from the floor in the first 16 minutes.

“We were playing really good defense in the first half,” said senior Lauren Patterson, who finished with 12 points and five assists. “They’d probably seen defense like that, but we were playing well and taking care of the ball and making good shots on the offensive end.”

That carried over into the second half as Vilonia stretched its lead to 15 when Mears hit her third three-pointer of the game at the start of the fourth quarter.

Batesville (22-3) drew within seven by the midpoint of the quarter, then cut the deficit to just three with 90 seconds to play after Riley Freeman knocked down a three-pointer from the left wing.

The Lady Pioneers then made it a one-point game on a Taylor Rush layup with a minute remaining, yet never took the lead as the Lady Eagles finished things off with four consecutive made free throws.

“I was proud of my little girls,” Batesville Coach Stan Fowler said. “They dug themselves a little hole and they kept trying to dig their way out. I said it the other day: If they go out fighting and put forth the effort, I’m going to be proud of them.”

WEST MEMPHIS 51, LAKE HAMILTON 43

The Lady Blue Devils’ surprise March run took another step Saturday afternoon as they handed the Lady Wolves their first defeat of 2021 and brought the 5A-South champions’ season to an end.

Although Lake Hamilton (24-4) closed what was at one time a 16-point deficit to just six at the start of the fourth quarter, the Lady Wolves didn’t shoot nearly well enough to stay alive. Lake Hamilton hit 17 of 48 shots from the floor and just one of their 11 three-point attempts. Hayleigh Wyrick led the way with 19.

West Memphis (10-14) capitalized on turnovers and second-chance opportunities. Janiyah Tucker scored 20 points and Aniya Price added 13. Clemisha Prackett turned in an 11-point, 14-rebound effort.