Lady Panthers lose to Russellville
Russellville pulls away as SSHS goes scoreless for first 5:40 of the fourth quarter.
Siloam Springs’ girls basketball team picked a tough time to go cold Friday night.
Trailing 38-34 entering the fourth quarter, the Lady Panthers went scoreless for the first 5 minutes, 40 seconds of the final period and Russellville took full advantage to pull away for a 5137 victory on senior night inside Panther Activity Center.
The Lady Panthers (5-21, 0-11 5A/6A District 1) whiffed off on their first seven possessions of the fourth — losing a jump ball on the opening possession of the quarter, followed by an offensive foul, a turnover and four missed 3-pointers.
Chloe Price’s 3-pointer with 2:20 left ended the drought and brought the Lady Panthers within 46-37, but the damage had already been done.
“Yeah got some pretty good looks,” said Siloam Springs head coach Tim Rippy. “They’re in the zone and they’re giving us wide open threes and we failed to convert. Then I thought we had a couple of defensive errors throughout the second half, stuff that shouldn’t happen. We gave up easy buckets.”
Russellville answered Price’s trey with a three-point play from Bailey Wilbers to get the lead back up to 49-37, and Abbie Looper added a pair of free
throws to set the final score.
Russellville ended the game on a 24-8 run after Siloam Springs took a 2927 lead in the third quarter.
“In the second half, we came out in our matchup (zone),” Lady Cyclones head coach Sherry White said. “They couldn’t get their shots off and I thought we protected the lane a lot better.”
Down 29-27, the Lady Cyclones went on a 5-0 run to take a 32-29 lead, but Kenlie Noel answered for Siloam Springs with a 3-pointer at the top of the key to tie the game at 32.
Russellville then scored the next six points to go up 38-32 before Hailey Dorsey scored at the end of the third quarter to make it 38-34.
Baskets and clutch plays were hard to come by after that for the Lady Panthers.
“That’s our challenge going forward into the postseason,” Rippy said. “Things aren’t going to change if we can’t make the plays in crunch time to get over that mountain top.”
Looper led the Lady Cyclones (14-10, 7-3) with 17 points, while Emily Posey had 13 and Wilbers 11.
Price led the Lady Panthers with 13 points, while Hadlee Hollenback and Morgan Vaughn each scored six. Vaughn was playing for the first time after missing two games with an injured foot. She scored six points in the second quarter to give the Lady Panthers a spark as they outscored Russellville 15-8 in the second after trailing 17-10 after the first.
Noel added five points, while Dorsey had four. The team’s lone senior Sidney Henry scored two points in her final home game, and Alexis Roach had one. Russellville 51, Siloam Springs 37 Russellville 17 8 13 13 — 51 Siloam Springs 10 15 9 3 — 37 Russellville (14-10, 7-3): Looper 17, Posey 13, Wilbers 11, Rhode 6, McAlister 2, Myers 2. Siloam Springs (5-21, 0-11): Price 13, Hollenback 6, M. Vaughn 6, Noel 5, Dorsey 4, Henry 2, Roach 1.
Alma 63, Siloam Springs 54
ALMA — Siloam Springs couldn’t quite catch Alma on Tuesday night. The Airedalettes earned their third win over the Lady Panthers this season with a 5A/6A District 1 victory at Charles B. Dyer Arena inside Alma High School. Alma led 23-11 after the first quarter and pulled ahead by as many as 17 before the Lady Panthers started charging back. Siloam Springs went on a 13-0 run to pull within 28-24 in the second quarter, but Alma responded to take a 34-27 halftime lead. Siloam Springs went on another run in the second half and got within 53-51 with 3:48 left, but Alma went on a 10-3 run to close out the victory. Chloe Price scored 23 points to lead Siloam Springs, which was playing without leading scorer Morgan Vaughn (foot) for the second straight game. Hadlee Hollenback scored 13, while Kenlie Noel added eight, Alexis Roach four, and Hailey Dorsey and Sidney Henry each with three. Abbye Ostrander led Alma with 26 points, including five 3-pointers. Sierra Bailey added 12 points for the Airedalettes, while Kailey Fagan had 10. Alma also defeated the Lady Panthers 73-62 in the eighthplace game of the Rogers Great 8 Tournament on Dec. 8 as well as a 49-46 victory in Siloam Springs on Jan. 13.
Up next
The Lady Panthers play their final regular season game at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Greenwood.