Gentry girls move into regional finals
MORRILTON — Gentry contained and contested Morrilton’s explosive guard Cheyanne Kemp on the way to beating the 4A-4 district and regular season champions, 49-37, in the 4A North Regional semifinal Friday.
Gentry held Kemp to 10 points. Jennifer Hartman also scored 10 to share team-high honors for Morrilton, but the best performance came from Gentry senior guard Alyssa McCarty, who poured in 28 points.
Gentry coach Toby Tevenbaugh provided his girls with additional incentive by promising he would do “the Griddy,” a dance move in which the dancer taps his heels while standing in place or walking and swinging his arms back and forth. The dance is credited to high school football player Allen Davis in 2018, whose dance went viral on social media in 2021.
Toby Tevenbaugh noted Morrilton experienced early foul trouble, which the Lady Pioneers capitalized on by outscoring the host 14-3 in the second quarter. Morrilton captured a brief 15-14 lead on Sophia Wahrmund’s 3-pointer, but Gentry reeled off 12 unanswered points with McCarty slashing to the basket and canning a 15-footer. A charging foul on Wahrmund, her third personal, occurred in between those two Gentry baskets.
McCarty was in the groove. She took a rebound the length of the floor and finished with an acrobatic reverse layup, then coming out of a Morrilton time-out, drained a trifecta. Reese Hester hit a three, and Gentry enjoyed a 26-15 halftime advantage. Hester finished with nine points.
The Lady Pioneers had to weather a storm in the third quarter when Morrilton turned the tables by outscoring Gentry 10-3, which cut the lead to 29-25. The margin would have been even closer, but Morrilton had a basket taken off the board by a shot clock violation with 41 seconds left in the third quarter.
Kemp found Wahrmund alone in the corner for a 3-pointer that gave Morrilton a 33-32 edge at the 4:46 mark of the fourth period.
Coming out of a time-out, Shelby Still’s bucket in the paint restored the lead to Gentry, which kick-started a 13-1 Lady Pioneer run in crunch time. McCarty caused a turnover by drawing a charging foul.
McCarty utilized a crossover dribble and finished with her left, then after Kaitlyn Caswell stole the ball from Kemp, McCarty added a 3-point play to make up for her 1-for-7 shooting from beyond the arc with 2:29 showing.
Emma Tevenbaugh contributed two steals during the decisive run. She anticipated a lob into the post late in the fourth, and McCarty hit four straight free throws while shooting the bonus to cap the run with Gentry ahead, 45-34.
Wahrmund hit from three, but McCarty sealed the 49-37 with four more free throws out of the double bonus to send Gentry into the 4A North Regional championship against Farmington, a rematch of the District 4A-1 finals the week before.
Morrilton dropped into a consolation game against Gravette. All four teams advanced to the state tournament this week at Blytheville.