Lady Trojans dethrone Chapel
Hot Springs may not have looked quite like its fans expected in Saturday’s Class 5A girls state basketball final at Bank of the Ozarks Arena, but when the final buzzer sounded, the Lady Trojans stood tall as they brought home the hardware and a
50-47 victory over fellow 5A-South member Watson Chapel in front of
4,238.
“When you have guards late in the season that can play and can handle the pressure and handle the chaos that happens, you’ve got a great chance to win,” Hot Springs head coach Josh Smith said. “I always heard growing up, ‘You’ve got to have one guard.’ Well, I’ve got two, and two that are pretty dang good.”
The Lady Trojans (31-3), usually a strong free throw-shooting team, struggled at the line, hitting just 12 of 25, including 4 of 15 in the final eight minutes.
Trailing 38-37 going into the final period, the Lady Wildcats (28-5) grabbed the lead for the last time as senior Jakhiyah Boston hit a 3-pointer at the 6:53 mark.
Hot Springs junior forward Nya Moody hit one of two free throws 23 seconds later to cut the deficit to one before senior guard Ariana Guinn took it to the hole for a layup for the 13th and final lead change of the match.
The Lady Trojans stretched the lead out to five twice by the 59 second mark, but a layup by senior Jerica Bell with 16 seconds remaining left Hot Springs with a 48-47 lead.
Five seconds later, Bell fouled Guinn, who made one of two at the line.
A controversial offensive foul with 3.8 seconds remaining on sophomore Wyvette Mayberry gave the ball back to the Lady Trojans.
“The truth — I thought it was pitiful,” Watson Chapel head coach Leslie Henderson said of the call. “I thought she should have been at the line to tie it.”
Jaidan Thomas was sent to the line as she was fouled after catching the inbound pass, making the second of two to set the final.
“I can’t put it into words,” Smith said of winning the title. “Last week, I was speechless, and I guess I’m more speechless now than I was last week. I can’t say enough about these kids and the fight that they have. They laid it out there, and that’s what I kept asking them to do. Trying to get those rebounds we have to have, trying to get that one stop that we have to have and we came up with enough at the end for the three-point win.”
“If you were to told me before the game that Jakhiyah Boston would come out and hit the shots like she did or that Hot Springs would miss the free throws that they did because they are a free throw-shooting team, I would have thought we would be the winner on the outcome,” said Henderson. “It’s a tough outcome. We feel like when you shoot six free throws and they shoot 25, it’s tough. You’ve got a starter on the bench, that’s hard to overcome.”
Early on, the game looked to be going Watson Chapel’s way. Getting on the board with 35 seconds off the clock, the Lady Wildcats held the lead for much of the first quarter.
After Bell sank a jump shot with
6:39 remaining to make it 4-2, Moody responded with a trey to give the Lady Trojans their first lead of the game. Guinn followed with a layup to stretch to a 7-4 lead, but Watson Chapel hit a 9-2 run to pull ahead
13-9 with 3:29 to go.
Hot Springs did not give up, however. The Lady Trojans cut the lead to one twice, escaping the first with a 15-14 deficit.
Moody had a layup and senior guard Imani Honey a pair of free throws to give the Lady Trojans a 18-15 lead, but Watson Chapel senior T’aja Williams hit a long three to knot the score at 18-18 with 5:34 to go.
The two teams battled back and forth, the lead never stretching beyond two points before the Lady Wildcats tied it up at 25-25 going into the break.
A layup by sophomore Taylor Whitted gave the Lady Wildcats the early lead in the second half, but Hot Springs went on an 8-3 run to pull ahead 33-30 at the 4:30 mark.
Watson Chapel erased the lead with 3:19 to go, but the Lady Trojans pulled out to another three-point lead before Bell landed a layup to set a 38-37 Hot Springs lead going into the final frame.
Guinn led all scorers with 22 points on the night with three rebounds, three steals and an assist, and Honey tallied 12 points with six boards, dishing out five times with two steals. Honey also earned most valuable player honors for her performance.
Moody added 13 points for Hot Springs with seven rebounds and a pair of 3-pointers, and Thomas had three points with seven rebounds of her own.
Boston paced the Lady Wildcats with 20 points and three rebounds, and Bell added 14 with 14 rebounds and two steals.
Watson Chapel outrebounded the Lady Trojans, pulling down
34 with 21 on the defensive end of the court. Hot Springs grabbed just 25, but it had 21 pulldowns on the defensive end of the court.
The Lady Wildcats hit 4 of 6 at the charity stripe on the night while sinking 7 of 21 from distance. The Lady Trojans hit just 2 of 9 from outside the arc, but they finished with 18 of 37 from the field,
48.6 percent, while Watson Chapel sank just 18 of 50 for 36 percent. Hot Springs collected its fifth state title, the most recent from
2015 when the three seniors were just freshmen members of the Lady Trojans.