Girls grow up in gutsy win
Morgan Vaughn scored a career-high 37 points in the victory.
The Siloam Springs girls basketball team grew up a little bit more Friday night.
Morgan Vaughn scored a career-high 37 points and the Lady Panthers rallied from 17-point first-half deficit to knock off Claremore (Okla.) 67-62 in overtime in the third-place game of the Siloam Springs Holiday Classic at Panther Activity Center.
Siloam Springs led 20-19 in the second quarter but watched Claremore go on a 20-2 run and take a 39-22 lead just before halftime. The Lady Panthers scored the last four points of the half to pull within 39-26.
Vaughn said head coach Tim Rippy and his staff challenged the Lady Panthers at halftime to not settle for the way they were playing.
“Coach just told us that we really needed to fix our effort, and we needed to slow down on offense and execute,” Vaughn said. “I think that’s what we did. We wanted to execute. We wanted this win. We did what we had to do.”
The Lady Panthers answered their coaches’ challenge. Siloam Springs went on a 22-8 run in the third quarter and actually took the lead 48-47 in the final minutes before the Lady Zebras got the lead back 49-48 on a basket by Lauren Hardage.
Rippy said the Lady Panthers were in the same situation on Thursday against Springdale, only they trailed that one 31-24 but got outscored 33-12 in the second half in a 64-36 loss.
“We came out and we laid an egg (Thursday),” Rippy said. “We challenged them to not let that happen and to find a way by the end of the third quarter to be in striking distance, to be in the ball game and show guts and grit and just good, old determination, and get one stop at a time and go down and get a great shot every possesion. We really had a good third quarter.”
Claremore pulled ahead 54-48 in the fourth quarter, but Vaughn hit a 3-pointer to cut the deficit to 54-51. Claremore turned it over four straight times and Vaughn scored seven straight points for the Lady Panthers to take a 58-54 lead. Claremore caught the Lady Panthers and both teams scored again before going to overtime tied 60-60.
Hadlee Hollenback scored a layup off the opening tip in overtime and the Lady Panthers never trailed in the extra period.
Vaughn added a bank shot for her only points in overtime, and Sidney Henry hit a pair of free throws and Chloe Price split a pair as Siloam Springs won its biggest game of the season.
Vaughn had nine points in the first quarter and only two in the second quarter, but she scored 14 in the third quarter and 10 more in the fourth.
“We’ve been asking (Vaughn) in transition this year to keep the ball in her hands a little bit more,” Rippy said. “Make the other team stop you, and tonight she did that. They never completely commited to her, so she continued to go in and finish. She’s very capable of doing that, kind of what like Morgan Miller used to do a lot. I told her, I thought it was her best game as a Lady Panther — all around, not just the scoring but pretty good decisions, pretty good passes, and played hard defensively and got a lot of rebounds.”
Hollenback added 12 points for Siloam Springs, while Chloe Price scored seven, Alexis Roach five and Henry, Emery Brown and Abby Vaughn each with two.
Lauren Chancellor scored 24 points to lead Claremore, while Breanna Farmer had 13, Hardage and Robinson each with nine and Abbey Cox with seven.
Chancellor finished with 24 points, but she only had 11 in the second half. The Lady Panthers face guarded her late in the game with Brooklyn Buckminster and Alexis Roach shouldering the defensive responsibilities.
“I felt like we did a good job on her,” Rippy said. “She made some tough buckets, but we wanted to make her earn it for sure.”
Siloam Springs 67, Claremore (Okla.) 62, OT Claremore (Okla.) 16 23 10 11 2 — 62 Siloam Springs 18 8 22 12 7 — 67 Claremore, Okla. (6-3): Chancellor 24, Farmer 13, Hardage 9, Robinson 9, Cox 7. Siloam Springs (4-10): M. Vaughn 37, Hollenback 12, Price 7, Roach 5, Henry 2, Brown 2. A. Vaughn 2.
Springdale 64, Siloam Springs 36
The Lady Panthers stayed with the bigger, more athletic Lady Bulldogs for most of the first half, but the second half was a different story.
Springdale outscored Siloam Springs 33-12 in the second half to advance to the finals of the Siloam Springs Holiday Classic.
Springdale led 8-2 early in the game, but the Lady Panthers went on a 7-0 run to take a 9-8 lead with Morgan Vaughn’s driving basket with 2:37 left in the first quarter. Vaughn had also hit a 3-pointer and Hadlee Hollenback scored inside on that run.
Springdale got the lead back with a basket by Marquesha Davis, but a basket inside by Sidney Henry gave the Lady Panthers an 11-10 lead. Springdale scored the last four points of the first quarter to take a 14-11 lead.
The Lady Bulldogs led 2215 in the second quarter and Siloam Springs pulled within 22-20. Vaughn had a basket inside and then followed that with a 3-pointer to cut the deficit to 22-18.
A basket by Hailey Dorsey made it 22-20, but that was as close as the Lady Panthers would get the rest of the night.
Springdale pulled ahead 31-24 at halftime on a buzzer beater by Davis, and the Lady Bulldogs outscored Siloam Springs 21-6 in the third quarter to take a 52-30 lead going into the fourth.
Davis and Destiny Jackson each scored 19 points for Springdale, while Haley Dougan added 10.
Vaughn led Siloam Springs with 14 points, while Hollenback and Henry each had four, Chloe Price and Anna Baccus each with three, Hailey Dorsey, Alexis Roach, Kenlie Noel and Abby Vaughn each with two.
Springdale 64, Siloam Springs 36 Siloam Springs 11 13 6 6 — 36 Springdale 14 17 21 12 — 64 Siloam Springs: M. Vaughn 14, Hollenback 4, Henry 4, Price 3, Baccus 3, Dorsey 2, Roach 2, Noel 2, A. Vaughn 2. Springdale: Davis 19, Jackson 19, Dougan 10, Minchew 6, Gause 3, Vogel 3, Turner 2, Huddler 2.
Siloam Springs 65, Coweta (Okla.) 48
The Lady Panthers trailed the Lady Tigers 25-14 midway through the second quarter of the opening-round game of the Siloam Springs Holiday Classic when Chloe Price began to heat up.
Price converted an oldfashioned three-point play with 4:18 left to start a personal 9-0 run and a 12-1 surge for Siloam Springs to end the first half tied at 26-26.
Trailing 25-17, Price hit back-to-back 3-pointers from the wing to make it 26-23, and Morgan Vaughn buried a 3-pointer to tie the game going into halftime.
Price and the Lady Panthers went back to work in the third quarter. The sophomore guard scored 11 more points, including three 3-pointers as Siloam Springs pulled ahead 46-37 after the third quarter.
The Lady Panthers sprinted past Coweta in the fourth quarter for the 17-point victory, a 28-point turnaround from the first half.
Price finished with a gamehigh and career-high 20 points, including five 3-pointers. Vaughn had 17, while Hadlee Hollenback had nine, Alexis Roach seven, Sidney Henry five, Brooklyn Buckminster four, Emery Brown two and Hailey Dorsey one.
Siloam Springs 65, Coweta (Okla.) 48
Coweta (Okla.) 18 8 11 11 — 48 Siloam Springs 9 17 20 19 — 65 Coweta (Okla.): Fernandez 20, Frazier 9, Wheat 8, Gray 6, Ross 5. Siloam Springs: Price 20, M. Vaughn 17, Hollenback 9, Roach 7, Henry 5, Buckminster 4, Brown 2, Dorsey 1.
Up next
The Lady Panthers open 5A/6A District 1 play at 6 p.m. on Tuesday at Farmington.