Mount Vernon-Enola pulls away from Kirby in fourth

MOUNT VERNON-ENOLA 65, KIRBY 53

MORRILTON — Gracie Raby scored 8 of her 14 points in the final quarter to carry Mount Vernon-Enola to a 65-53 victory over Kirby in the Class 1A semifinals at Devil Dog Arena in Morrilton on Saturday.

Mount Vernon-Enola will play either Norfork or Wonderview in the Class 1A girls state title game this week in Hot Springs.

Fouls beset the Lady Warhawks in the opening half, allowing Kirby to make 12 of 14 free throws en route to a 14-11 edge after the first eight minutes.

“That was a little bad for us,” Mount Vernon-Enola Coach Adam Carlton said. “We usually try to get the ball inside to Kyndal [Hardy] more but ran into some foul trouble.

“We came out a little bit high on them, and we were slapping a little bit. But we had some role players come off the bench to contribute, and some of those hadn’t played in quite a while.”

The Lady Warhawks (348) got going in the second quarter, hitting four consecutive three-pointers, two each from Alaina Ellis and Taylor Keathley.

But Kirby (30-6) kept hitting free throws, making 8 of 9, to carry a 32-30 lead into halftime.

The Lady Warhawks finally got a lead in the third quarter but kept exchanging it with the Lady Trojans until the final minute of the quarter when Alyse Ellis made a three-pointer with 1:12 remaining, giving Mount Vernon-Enola a 45-42 lead.

Kirby cut that to one on two free throws by McKenzie Jones, but Raby hit two free throws of her own with 4.1 seconds remaining for a 47-44 edge at the end of the quarter. That’s when she began to control the game.

“It’s always my hope when we get to that part of the game,” Carlton said of Raby. “She’s so good, and she built a lot of confidence this year. It’s a compliment to her to go after it.

“The last month or so, she has just put us on her back and took over.”

And it wasn’t just scoring for Raby. She controlled the movement of the ball down the floor and kept Kirby defenders chasing her. And the foul situation was not as dire for the Lady Warhawks in the second half.

“When you get down to this point, you just have to go out and play,” Carlton said. “You can’t worry about the officiating. The officials aren’t going to take a foul off the board just because you complain about it. You can’t change what the officials do. You just have to be ready to play.”

Raby scored the first seven points of the fourth quarter for Mount Vernon-Enola, giving the Lady Warhawks a 55-48 advantage with 3:27 remaining.

Kirby narrowed it to 5550 when Jones hit two free throws with 3:21 left, but that was when Kirby was forced to start fouling. From the 1:53 mark, the Lady Warhawks converted 10 of 12 free throws.

Alaina Ellis led the Lady Warhawks with 16 points while Raby added 14 and Kenzie Woodruff had 11. Jones had a game-high 21 points for Kirby, scoring 17 from the freethrow line. Gracie Smith had 14, and Joce Mount added 11.