Lady ’Hawks fall to Cards
Lack of whistles allows clock to run
FARMINGTON — A key early 4A-1 Conference girls basketball victory went to the Farmington Lady Cardinals, who had to hold off a late Pea Ridge surge, to win 71-64.
The Lady Cardinals led the Tuesday, Dec. 19, contest in Cardinal Arena by a 71-55 margin when Audrey Culpepper found Makenna Vanzant with 3:02 to play.
Pea Ridge then scored the last 9 points of the game between senior Maria Socha’s free throws at the 2:21 mark and senior Hollyn Davis’ driving basket with 33 seconds left following a Pea Ridge steal. Farmington ran out the clock although Pea Ridge fouled twice forcing the Lady Cardinals to in-bound the ball.
The foul factor weighed against the Lady Blackhawks down the stretch when Lady Blackhawk head coach Heath Neal instructed his players to foul. They complied but officials weren’t calling fouls. Farmington coach Brad Johnson engaged an official while Socha was shooting free throws to no avail.
Pea Ridge capitalized converting steals when they were trying to foul into the 9-0 run, but the clock ran the whole time. When a foul was finally called against Pea Ridge, the clock was down to 39.9 seconds. Another whistle came with 9.2 seconds showing, but the Lady Blackhawks had only committed five team fouls at that point. Eventually Pea Ridge ran out of time.
Farmington senior Madisyn Pense scored the 1,000th point of her high school career when sophomore Lady Blackhawk Aidan Dayberry knocked her down in the midst of a 3-point shot which was good. Pense converted the 4-point play to reach 1,000 points with 7.1 seconds remaining in the first half.
Davis made a trey with 52 seconds to play in the second quarter cutting Farmington’s lead to 4 points. Pense’s exploit doubled Farmington’s lead to 37-29 at the half.
Farmington led 55-43 after three quarters. Pea Ridge cut into the deficit with a 6-3 run. Davis was tripped driving to the basket. She got the ball back as momentum carried her forward and scored. Lady ’Hawk sophomore Blakee Winn escaped a trap by the Lady Cardinals getting a layup off a freak play narrowing Farmington’s lead to 58-49.
Farmington outscored the Lady Blackhawks 13-6 over a three-minute span to build a 71-55 advantage. Then came the
peculiar ending.
Four Lady Blackhawks scored in double figures led by Davis with 20 points and four steals. Winn added 13; Socha, 12; and Adams had 12 points and five assists.
Pea Ridge defended Farmington’s top two scorers: Makenna Vanzant (10 points) and Pense (12) fairly well. The Lady Cardinals were bolstered by senior Alexis Roach, who made three of three treys and sophomore Tori Kersey. Both scored 18 points and collectively they made 14of-18 shots for Farmington. Roach led the Lady Cardinals with 11 rebounds.