Farmington cruises to Nashville rematch
CLASS 4A FARMINGTON 71, CLINTON 32
FARMINGTON — Gracee Linville hit three-pointer seconds into Thursday night’s Class 4A girls state tournament game to give Clinton a quick lead.
But the Lady Yellowjackets would never lead again.
The Farmington Lady Cardinals quickly took control and rolled to a 71-32 win at Cardinal Arena.
After a 12-0 run late in the first quarter, Hannah Moss made a three-pointer to give Farmington a 21-7 lead early in the second quarter and the Lady Cardinals had a 35-17 advantage at halftime.
Senior Reese Shirey poured in a team-high 22 points, including seven in a row to start the second half as the Lady Cardinals advanced to the semifinals.
The Lady Cardinals have now won 29 straight games. Their last loss came to nationally-ranked Duncanville, Texas, on Dec. 2 in the Red River Hoopfest at Texarkana, Texas.
The Lady Cardinals (35-1) face Nashville in the semifinals at noon Saturday in a rematch of last year’s state title game, which was won by Farmington.
Shirey said her team is capable of playing better than it did Thursday night and will need to going forward.
“[We played] good enough to win, but not good enough to win the whole thing,” Shirey said. “I mean we’re going to have to step it up. Clinton’s a good team. They do their system very well. But we need to be better.”
Shirey also said it was important for the Lady Cardinals to get the energy back on their side after Clinton (23-12) had finished the first half strong. She made a three-pointer and picked up a pair of steal in her 7-0 run to put Farmington ahead 42-17.
Zoey Bershers, a 6-3 junior, also had 12 points for Farmington, including 3 three-pointers. Wallace scored 12 for Clinton.
“I think obviously would have liked to finish better early around the rim,” Farmington Coach Brad Johnson said. “We were super aggressive I thought as far as advancing the basketball up the floor. Defensively we didn’t play bad. We were pretty stingy for the most part.
“But again there are certain things that we key in on and lock in on and we want to be better in the glass than we were tonight. We’ve got to finish better than we did tonight. But overall from an effort standpoint, I thought we played real hard, put the ball in the right spots.”
NASHVILLE 95, FORREST CITY 49
The Scrapperettes got off to a red-hot start and cruised to the easy quarterfinal win.
Nashville (29-7), the defending state runner-up, but together a quick 16-0 run in the first quarter and never looked back.
If that early punch wasn’t enough, the Scrapperettes applied the knockout punch opening the second quarter with a 30-0 run and led 56-8 after Shalyn Lyle’s three-pointer.
The Scrapperettes posted their 22nd consecutive win. Their last loss came to North Little Rock on Dec. 19.
Jessie Lyle finished with 17 points, including five three-pointers, and Shalyn Lyle added 18 to lead Nashville. Dean finished with 12 on four three-pointers, all in the first half. The Scrapperettes made 14 three-pointers in the game.
Charnelle Hoof led all scorers with 29 points for Forrest City (28-8).