Lady Houns Seal Win In Last Seconds
For the second time this year, the Aurora Lady Houns used an advantage from the free throw line to beat the McDonald County Lady Mustangs.
Aurora was 15 for 23 (65 percent), including 10 for 15 in the fourth quarter, to key the Lady Houns’ 33-29 win in the third place game of the Seneca Girls’ Basketball Tournament on Feb. 2 at Seneca High School.
“We got the ball in the lane and just couldn’t finish,” said coach Chris Kennedy. “We executed our offense very well, but we just couldn’t buy a basket at times. They knew we had trouble shooting and went to a zone that made us make a shot and we couldn’t do that on a consistent basis.”
The game was tied at the end of the first quarter (7-7) and at halftime (13-13), but Aurora used an 8-4 advantage to take a 21-17 lead into the fourth quarter.
Ragan Wilson opened the fourth quarter with a short jumper to cut the lead to 21-19 before Aurora answered with six straight free throws to build a 27-19 lead.
“We executed our offense
very well, but we just couldn’t buy a basket at times. They knew we had trouble shooting and went to a zone that made us make a shot and we couldn’t do that
on a consistent basis.”
Coach Chris Kennedy
MCHS Girls Basketball
Wilson stopped the bleeding with another basket followed by a three-pointer by Samantha Frazier and a basket by Kristin Penn to cut the lead to 27-26 with 1:30 left in the game.
Aurora’s Elizabeth Martin scored Aurora’s only points other than from the free throw line in the period to give the Lady Houns a 29-26 edge with 1:18 left. Aurora then hit four more free throws in the final minute to seal the win.
“We hit some shots late that got us back in to the game, but we needed more of those early,” Kennedy said. “Honestly, I think we grew from this game to the point if we can put layups in we will win some games. The girls put everything they had into these three tournament games and you can’t fault them for that. It just comes down to putting the ball into the basket.”
Wilson finished with 10 points to lead McDonald
County followed by Penn with seven points, Frazier five, Caitlyn Barton, Rita Santillan and Laney Wilson two each and Alexia Kitlen one.
Martin finished with 14 points to lead Aurora.
Purdy
McDonald County opened the tournament with a 58-35 win over Purdy. The Lady Mustangs scored 20 points in both the first and second quarters to build a 40-20 at halftime and then cruised in the second half.
Santillan scored 16 points, 13 in the first half, to lead McDonald County. Rounding out the scoring for the Lady Mustangs were Ragan Wilson and Frazier with nine points each, Kitlen with seven, Penn six, Mattie Leach and Laney Wilson four each and Lily Allman three.
Monett
Alyssa Kennedy is now 2-0 while coaching against her husband. Alyssa’s Monett Lady Cubs claimed a 47-32 win over McDonald County in the second pool game for both teams of the Seneca Girls’ Basketball Tournament.
McDonald County jumped out to a 10-6 lead at the end of the first period, but Monett rallied in the second to take a 19-16 lead at halftime. Monett then outscored the Lady Mustangs 28-16 in the second half to pull away for the win.
McDonald County was led by Penn with 10 points followed by Santillan with nine, Frazier eight and Ragan Wilson five.
Kaesha George led Monett with 18 points.
McDonald County, 6-13 for the season, hosted Lamar on Feb. 4 before traveling to Nevada on Feb. 8. Games begin at 4:30 p.m.