Fourth quarter fouls cost Lady Lions conference contest
GRAVETTE — A pair of backto-back fouls, one personal and one technical, cost the Gravette Lady Lions the game as the team played host to the Harrison Lady Goblins at Lion Arena in Gravette Friday night. The result was a one-point conference loss in the final two seconds of the contest.
Will Pittman, girls’ head basketball coach, was out for unknown reasons, leaving his longtime assistant, Kayla Shortt, in command for the night.
Dalacie Wishon kicked off the contest with a jumper from the left lane with two minutes elapsed off the clock for the Lady Lions’ first point of the night. Gravette held Harrison scoreless until the 2:20 mark when Brynn Oleson landed a field goal for the Lady Goblins’ first points of the contest. From this point on, both defenses worked hard to prevent any runs and by the end of the first quarter, the Lady Lions held the lead, 9-7.
Both offenses began to play a little more aggressively during the second quarter and by the 1:02 mark, Harrison lagged behind Gravette by two. But a field goal by Gravette extended its lead back to five going into the halftime break.
As it was in the opening quarter, the third quarter was mainly defense and neither team was able to establish control of the contest. Harrison was only able to gain a single point over Gravette 9-8 which allowed the Lady Lions to hold on to the lead, 3127, going into the final quarter.
With 5:22 left to play in the contest, the Lady Goblins finally pulled ahead of the Lady Lions by one. For the next 30 seconds, the lead changed two more times before the Lady Lions began to pull ahead once more. With less than four minutes left to play, Gravette was ahead by four when Kaylan Chilton fouled a Harrison player for a pair of free throws. Chilton and the Harrison player exchanged words at midcourt. Unfortunately, Chilton was the one that got caught by the officials, drawing a technical. This allowed the Lady Goblins to get four free throws out of the incident. The Harrison shooter hit all four shots and within the course of five seconds, the game was tied at 40 all.
This allowed the Lady Goblins to go on a six to zero run, giving Harrison the lead by six. With less than a minute, Wishon hit two free throws and Hamilton hit one to move the Lady Lions to within three points. A field goal with less than four seconds left put Gravette behind by one. But time ran out on the Lady Lions and Harrison took the conference contest, 47-46, over Gravette.
Leading the way in the scoring department for the Lady Lions was Shylee Morrison with 14, four three-point field goals and
two for two from the freethrow line. Morrison was followed by Chilton with nine, Wishon and Lizzy Ellis each with eight, Reese Hamilton with five and Rachel Deihl with two.
The Lady Goblins had one player in double figures for the night. Alex Hill put up a total of 26 points, including one three-point field goal, six two-point field goals, and 11 of 12 from the free-throw line. Other Harrison players contributing to the scoring effort included Maggie Salmon with seven, Shaylee
Ward with six, Clare Barger with four, Oleson and Mariah Hudson each with two.