Wisp Of Smoke

LINCOLN GIRLS ELIMINATED FROM DISTRICT TOURNEY

GENTRY — The day before Valentine’s Day became a bittersweet day to kiss the season goodbye for the Lincoln girls basketball team, suffering an anti-climatic, 51-43, season-ending loss to Gentry.

“We had a great year. You want it to end playing your best game and just got beat but that didn’t happen,” said Lincoln coach Deon Birkes. “We didn’t play well enough to win as far as making easy shots.”

Lincoln (19-8) was eliminated from the 1-4A District tournament by Gentry (1115), a team they beat 51-30 the previous week.

A major difference was the emergence of freshmen Haley Borgeteien- James, who scored 15 points and added a new dimension to the Gentry lineup that Lincoln struggled to adjust to.

“She can play all five positions, she can handle the ball or post up. She’s a hard matchup,” said Gentry coach Tim Rippy.

Borgeteien-James put in a Gentry miss at the buzzer to give the Lady Pioneers momentum going into the halftime break and keeping Gentry within one, at 2221. She had 9 points in the second quarter, scoring three times on putbacks.

Birkes was not

pleased with how the game was officiated indicating no calls hurt Lincoln’s offense, which prominently features 5-foot-10 Haley Sugg in the low post. Sugg has been a consistently proficient at getting to the free throw line throughout the course of the season but was limited to few touches on offense and 11 points against Gentry.

“We gave them too many chances but when you get away with laying on my strong one all night. Just because Haley Sugg is strong. Remember these girls are teenagers, adults shouldn’t be getting into it,” Birkes said.

Tara Arnold kept Gentry close early, hitting a 3-pointer to pull Gentry within, 6-5, at the 4:36 mark of the first quarter and hit a pair of free throws to give Gentry a 4point lead, at 41-37, with 2:45 left in the fourth quarter but Lincoln fought back to tie the contest on a lob to Sugg and Nikki Thordsen’s move to the hoop. A 3- pointer put the Pioneers back up but Shelby Rowe drove the middle of the lane slicing between two defenders to score off the glass with 1:22 remaining.

Lincoln would not score again and lost 51-43, ending their first season in the 4A1 with a 19-8 overall record with an 8- 4 conference mark.

Arnold tallied 16 points to lead all scorers for Gentry.

MARK HUMPHREY ENTERPRISE-LEADER Swan song. Lincoln senior Nikki Thordsen elevates to get off a jump shot in the lane against Gentry. Mistakes down the stretch cost the Lady Wolves, who were eliminated from the district tournament by the Lady Pioneers, 51-43, on Feb. 13 at Gentry.

MARK HUMPHREY ENTERPRISE-LEADER Steve Edmiston, Prairie Grove boys basketball coach, goes over strategy during the district tournament. The Tigers beat Berryville, 54-49, in a come-from-behind win on Feb. 12, but faltered in the fourth quarter the next day, losing to Gravette, 58-47.