Lady Panthers ‘gut’ out victory over Harrison
■ Siloam Springs knocked off Harrison at home on Tuesday.
Having already lost 10 games this season by 10 points or less, Siloam Springs’ girls found a way to get the job done on Tuesday.
The Lady Panthers held Harrison scoreless for nearly the last half of the fourth quarter and rallied for a 35-32 victory inside Panther Activity Center.
“We didn’t shoot ourselves in the foot tonight,” said Siloam Springs coach Tim Rippy. “We found a way to get the lead when we were behind. Just a lot of gutsy determination on defense. I thought it was a great defensive game from both teams. Neither team shot the ball well, but we had to gut one out. We did everything that we needed to do.”
Harrison scored the first six points of the fourth quarter to take a 30-24 lead, and the Lady Goblins led 32-27 after a basket by Kenzie Parker.
Chloe Price knocked down a pair of free throws with 3 minutes, 25 seconds left to cut the lead to 32-29, and Hadlee Hollenback cut the Lady Goblins’ lead to 32-31 with a basket in transition.
The Lady Panthers (7-16, 3-5) took the lead for good with 38.2 seconds left on a pair of free throws by sophomore Shelby Johnson.
Siloam Springs had a pair of opportunities to extend the lead but went 0 for 3 at the free-throw line. Harrison, though, couldn’t capitalize either and Morgan Vaughn intercepted a pass and was fouled with 2.1 seconds left.
Vaughn, Siloam Springs’ leading scorer coming into the game at around 16 points per game, scored her only two points of the night at the free throw line to put the Lady Panthers up 35-32.
Claire Doshier’s halfcourt heave banged off the back of the iron as the Lady Panthers earned the win.
“I’d love to see us clean up the free throws at the end better, but we made the two that we had to have,” Rippy said. “I really thought we rebounded well down the stretch, and I thought that was the difference in the game.”
Siloam Springs had a lot of success with its post players as Hollenback led with 14 points and Johnson finished with 10.
“We saw that they were going to play behind our post players in the first quarter,” Rippy said. “So I told our kids, especially since we were struggling from the outside, to pound the ball inside. We did it well at times. We struggled with
it at times, but it was important to get those buckets, especially early when we were struggling to score. I felt like even late we were able to get it inside and go to the free-throw line so that was big for us.”
Hollenback gave credit to Siloam Springs’ guards for doing a good job feeding the ball inside.
“Coach Rippy said they were playing behind us and the guards did a good job of seeing that and getting the passes there when it was open,” Hollenback said. “When it wasn’t open, they did a good job of reading that.”
Caroline Cecil led Harrison (7-14, 2-5) with 11 points.
“We just couldn’t take care of the ball very well in critical situations,” said Harrison coach Doug Young. “Sometimes when you’ve got sophomores you’ve got growing pains. Not blaming sophomores, because we had some older ones make mistakes too. It’s all part of the growing process and learning from your mistakes in crucial situations.
“I messed up. I could have called a timeout and tried to stop it before it transpired, so I’m going to take the blame on this one.” Siloam Springs 35, Harrison 32 Harrison 9 7 8 8 — 32 Siloam Sprgs 10 7 7 11 — 35 Harrison (7-14, 2-5): Cecil 11, B. Parker 8, K. Parker 6, Doshier 4, Horn 2, Groberg 1.
Siloam Springs : Hollenback 14, Johnson 10, Price 4, Harried 3, Brown 2, Vaughn 2.
Clarksville 51, Siloam Springs 49
CLARKSVILLE — Siloam Springs was called for a foul with 0.5 seconds left in a tie ballgame and Clarksville hit two free throws to rally for a 51-49 victory Friday night.
Siloam Springs (7-17, 3-6) led 18-9 after the first quarter and 26-18 at halftime before heading to the third quarter with a 35-27 advantage.
Clarksville came back to tie the game at 45, and it was tied 49-49 when Siloam Springs turned the ball over with three seconds left.
Complete statistics were not available at presstime. Siloam Springs hosts Alma on Tuesday.