Fort Smith Northside pushed but holds on

FORT SMITH — Though Fort Smith Northside coach Rickey Smith said he did not need it, his nationally ranked Lady Bears needed to be pushed in a tough game.

Northside got it, needing late free throws to hold off Moore, Okla., 57-53 in the semifinals of the 2018 Taco Bell Tournament of Champions Friday at Southside Gymnasium.

Because of potential wintry weather in the area today’s games were canceled. So, a potential championship game between the Lady Bears (7-0) and Shawnee Mission (Kan.) Bishop Miege will not be played.

Right now, all that matters to Smith is that his Lady Bears had to fight for four quarters to earn the win.

“We needed a game like this,” Smith. “We won a lot of games by 20 points and have not been pushed. No matter how hard you work on it in practice, it is not the same as the game. Until the pressure is really there that you have to make that free throw or get a stop on defense, you won’t know how to respond. This is exactly what we needed. I personally didn’t need it, but they needed it.”

Jersey Wolfenbarger, who paced Northside with a game-high 20 points, drained a 3-pointer with 2 minutes, 21 seconds left to give the Lady Bears a 53-42 lead.

The Lady Lions, though, refused to surrender as Raychael Harjo drained a pair of 3-pointers and Ashanti Day added another to get within 53-51 with 24 seconds left. Moore drained 10 3-pointers in the game.

“When Jersey hit that 3, we relaxed and they got back into the game,” Smith said. “We relaxed on defense and they

Taco Bell Tournament of Champions

At Fort Smith Southside THURSDAY’S GAMES

Moore, Okla. 51, Van Buren 39 FS Northside 57, Tulsa East Central 31 Ponca City, Okla. 68, FS Southside 31 Shawnee Mission (Kan.) Bishop Miege 74, Howe, Okla. 62

FRIDAY’S GAMES

Bishop Meige 73, Ponca City 59 Northside 57, Moore 53

Van Buren 68, East Central 46 Howe 73, Southside 27

hit some shots and scored on an inbounds play. We haven’t been in the position of playing a close game all year. This was a valuable game for us.”

Sara Breshers, which added 16 points for Northside, clinched the game with four free throws in the final 24 seconds. The Lady Bears finished the game 23-of-30 from the foul line.

Kelsi Fitzgerald topped all Lady Lions scorers with 17 points, including five 3-pointers, while Harjo added 15 and Aaliyah Moore contributed 14.

Moore led 10-2 in the first four minutes of the game, but Northside switched to a 3-2 zone and got back to within 10-8 after one quarter.

“We tried the play man and they annihilated us, plus with Sara (Bershers) with 3 fouls we had to go zone,” Smith said. “I can tell you, in 25 years, zone has not been seen any at Northside High School. I am old school manto-man, but you gotta do what you gotta do. It changed the tempo of the game.”

Northside finally got its first lead of the game when consecutive 3-pointers by Breshers and Wolfenbarger gave the Lady Bears an 18-15 lead.

Tracey Bershers swished three free throws with :00.2 left in the first half to give Northside a 27-24 halftime lead. The game was tied at 36-all with three minutes left in the third quarter, but the Lady Bears used a 12-2 run, six from Tracey Bershers, to take the lead for good at 48-38 with 5:55 left.

In other games Friday, Bishop Miege downed Ponca City 73-59. The Stags (3-0) had five girls in double figures, paced by Johnni Gonzalez and Payton Verhulst each with 15. Beard scored a gamehigh 16 to lead the Lady Wildcats. Van Buren (5-3) made 10 3-pointers to defeat Tulsa East Central 68-46 in a consolation game. Kayleigh Evans scored a game-high 23 to lead the Lady Pointers while Ty’Najah Mitchell scored 14 to lead the Lady Cardinals (1-2). In the final game of the night, Howe, Okla., defeated Fort Smith Southside 73-27. Jalei Oglesby scored 34 points (her second straight 30-point performance of the tournament) paced the Lady Lions (4-1) while Melanie Rice led Southside (0-8) with 10 points.

Moore, Okla . ..... 10 14 14 15 — 53 FS Northside ....... 8 19 17 13 — 57 Moore (2-2): Fitzgerald 17, Harjo 15, Moore 14, Day 7.

Northside: Wolfenbarger 20, S. Bershers 16, T. Bershers 9, Douglas 7, Coleman 5.