Lady Cards Falter 47-44 In Regional Semifinal

FARMINGTON — Down by one with two minutes to go, Farmington allowed Morrilton to milk the clock, waiting too long to foul, and not leaving enough time to run a play.

Once Farmington finally did foul, stopping the clock, the Devil Dogs tacked on a pair of free-throws by Grace Brown, extending their lead to 47-44 with 20 seconds left. They purposely fouled twice in the last 10 seconds, forcing Farmington to in-bound from the side two times.

The Devil Dogs judicious use of consecutive non-shooting fouls (once Farmington crossed into the front-court) at the 9.5 second and 6.6 second marks allowed Morrilton to brilliantly redeem the time on defense while simultaneously depriving the Lady Cardinals of an opportunity to get off a quality shot. Morrilton wisely made certain Farmington only got one look at the basket and defended the last shot tenaciously.

The Lady Cardinals’ last in-bounds play came with 6.6 seconds remaining. This time Morrilton did not foul choosing to play a tight man-toman defense. Farmington did get the ball into the hands of a capable 3-point threat, Carson Dillard. The junior guard flashed out high on the right wing where she caught the ball, but Brown slipped past a screen and got in Dillard’s face.

Dillard took three, quick left- handed dribbles, but couldn’t shake Brown. Dillard couldn’t get her feet set, still managed to get off a shot from the top-of-the-key that didn’t touch the iron. Morrilton’s Alli Jo Dunlap rebounded, and the horn sounded with time expiring on Farmington’s hopes of playing for the 4A North Regional championship, a title they won last season as part of their 2020 quadruple crown, 4A-1 Conference, 4A-1 District, 4A North Regional and Class 4 State champions.

The abrupt end brought an anticlimactic conclusion to a game that looked like it would go down to the wire.

Morrilton led 17-10 at the end of the first quarter and increased that to 26-10 using a 17-2 run over a seven minute span to take control of the game. Eleven of those points came on either layups or freethrows.

The Devil Dogs’ Cheyanne Kemp, a 5-feet-8 sophomore guard, scored 10 points in the run mixing driving buckets with pull-up jumpers.

Farmington countered with a 7-0 run in the last threeand-half minutes of the first half. Dillard hit a trey. Megan Hernandez sank a pair of foul shots and Tori Kersey finished a fast-break with a layup on the fly to pull the Lady Cardinals within 26-17 at halftime.

The Lady Cardinals outscored Morrilton 14-8 in the third quarter to cut the deficit down to three, 34-31, but could only match the Devil Dogs point-for-point with each team scoring 13 down the stretch.

Brown’s 3-pointer from the wing put Morrilton up seven, at 40-33, with 6:26 showing. Farmington made a charge using an 11-5 run over the next four-and-a-half minutes to trim the lead down to a single point.

Hernandez screened freeing Kersey to dance down the left box. Dillard hit a trifecta. Kersey switched the ball from her natural left to her right hand making a spectacular basket in the lane, then capped the run by scoring off a long outlet pass.

Kemp had an off- target 3-pointer bank high off the backboard and go in for the Devil Dogs during Farmington’s fourth quarter run. Those three points, the result of more luck than skill, ironically provided the winning margin for the Devil Dogs.

Kemp led all scorers with 23 points. Farmington had two girls in double figures, Kersey with 18, all in the second half, and Hernandez with 10.

The 47-44 win advanced Morrilton into Saturday’s championship contest against Pea Ridge while Farmington dropped into a consolation game versus Harrison, which lost 57-54 to the Lady Blackhawks in the other semifinal.

MORRILTON 47, FARMINGTON 44

Farmington 10 7 14 13 — 44 Morrilton 17 9 8 13 — 47 Morrilton (18-3): Cheyanne Kemp 10 2-2 23, Grace Brown 2 2-2 8, Kennedy Reel 3 1-2 7, Alli Jo Dunlap 2 1-2 5, Jhyla Calvin 2 0-0 4. Totals 19 6-8 47.

Farmington (20-6): Tori Kersey 7

4-5 18, Megan Hernandez 3 4-4

10, Carson Dillard 3 0-0 8, Morgan Brye 2 0-0 5, Trinity Johnson 0 3-4 3. Totals 15 8-11 44.

3-Point Goals — Morrilton 3 (Brown 2, Kemp), Farmington 3 (Dillard 2, Brye).

MARK HUMPHREY ENTERPRISE-LEADER Farmington junior Carson Dillard, shown trying to shake a defender during a regular season game, worked hard to get off a last-second 3-point attempt in the Regional semifinal at Ozark against Morrilton on Friday.