Buzzer Beater Lifts Lady Cardinals Over Harrison

FARMINGTON GIRLS PLACE THIRD

FARMINGTON — Carson Dillard’s driving 8- feet bank shot at the buzzer capped a 11-0 Farmington run as the Lady Cardinals stormed back from a 61-52 deficit to upend Harrison, 63-61, Saturday.

The winning basket came off an in-bounds play from the side enabling Farmington to capture third place in the 4A North Regional Saturday — less than 24 hours after they couldn’t score in a similar situation and lost, 47-44, to tournament champion, Morrilton, in a semifinal on Friday.

Dillard also took the last shot in that contest. She had precious little time to work with while taking the in-bounds pass with six seconds to go. Dillard wasted no time driving past Harrison’s Maggie Salmon and putting up the shot as help defenders rotated over to cut off her path to the basket. The shot kissed in off the glass and Farmington fans celebrated.

The Lady Cardinals take a No. 3 seed into the Class 4A State tournament at Morrilton. They open defense of their 2020 State girls basketball championship on Wednesday against Southside Batesville at 4 p.m.

Harrison led throughout the contest, but Farmington doggedly stayed in the hunt and prevailed by blanketing the Lady Goblins, who went scoreless for almost four minutes after Salmon’s trey put them ahead, 61-52.

Senior Tori Kersey answered quickly, catching the ball on the low block and spinning to her left. Farmington coach Brad Johnson then called time-out and the Lady Cardinals put together a sequence of terrific defensive stops, which combined with clutch baskets got them in position to win.

Megan Hernandez cleared a defensive rebound and went coast-to-coast drawing a foul and sinking both free throws at the 2:25 mark. Hernandez stole away Harrison’s next possession and the Lady Cardinals inched closer on Dillard’s runner in the lane. Hernandez and company stopped Harrison’s Alexis Hill, who topped all scorers with 25 points, on a drive in the lane. Hill traveled turning the ball over to Farmington and the Lady Cardinals cashed in.

At the other end, Dillard found freshman Reese Shirey, who led Farmington with 18 points, open in the left corner for a spot-up trey, her sixth trifecta of the contest drew Farmington even at 61- 61 with 55 seconds to go.

Hernandez prevented Hill from getting dribble penetration causing her to pass off to Salmon, who in turn, gave up the ball to Sydney Shrum. Kersey rejected Shrum’s baseline shot and Shirey came up with the rebound. Brad Johnson called time-out with Shirey cut off in the back-court and set up the winning play culminating an uphill battle won by the Lady Cardinals.

Harrison led at each quarter break, 21-16 after one period, 37-32 at halftime, and 54-45 at the end of three quarters, and for all but the final moment; but Farmington scored when it counted most to take the 63-61 victory and gain some momentum into state.

Clare Barger added 14 points while Salmon had 11 for Harrison.

Farmington got point-production from Shirey, 18; Kersey, 17; Hernandez, 10; Dillard, 6; Trinity Johnson, 6; and Morgan Brye, 6. In all the Lady Cardinals knocked down 10 total 3-pointers.