Washington County Enterprise-Leader
Farmington girls top regional field
MORRILTON — Gentry’s focus on eliminating Farmington pointguard Reese Shirey as a factor succeeded in drawing five fouls against her spread out through three quarters in Saturday’s 4A North Regional championship.
Shirey never played in the second quarter yet Lady Pioneer efforts directed towards that end served as more of a distraction and they went scoreless at inopportune times as Farmington pulled away from narrow 12-9 and 27-22 margins at the first two quarter breaks with a strong 5:02 span to finish out the third quarter leading 44-30 and went on to hand Gentry its fourth loss by a 66-43 margin in as many meetings this season.
Jenna Lawrence, a four-star recruit who signed with the University of Arkansas in November, pumped in 26 points and Marin Adams tacked on 11 off the bench as Shirey’s replacement. The top-seeded Lady Cardinals again proved equal to the task of preventing drives to the basket before eventually pulling away at Morrilton’s Devil Dog Arena.
Following Alyssa McCarty’s athletic reverse layup while making a catch on an inbounds play underneath the Lady Pioneer basket that put Gentry up 5-2 with 6:13 left in the first quarter, the Lady Pioneers endured a three-and-a-half minute scoring drought and trailed 12-9 at the end of the first quarter.
Gentry did forge a 6-2 mini run and narrowed Farmington’s lead to a single point at 12-11 on Brynn Cordeiro’s bucket early in the second quarter. The Lady Pioneers made it a one possession game when McCarty split two defenders and finished a drive down the lane making the score 15-13 in favor of Farmington.
But even with Shirey on the bench in foul trouble, the Lady Pioneers couldn’t capitalize because they didn’t score again for a 3:27 span.
Emma Tevenbaugh’s offensive rebound and assist to Shelby Still, who knocked down a 3-pointer, began a 7-2 Lady Pioneer run which reduced Farmington’s lead to 23-20 when Emma Tevenbaugh hit the front end of a 1-and-1.
She couldn’t make the second, however, and the teams traded baskets with Lawrence scoring on a Lady Cardinal inbounds play under their own basket and Kaitlyn Caswell hitting a jumper for Gentry. Farmington’s Zoey Bershers beat the buzzer by scoring over a double team and despite making 86 percent of its 2-point field goals
(6 of 7) in the first half, Gentry faced a 27-22 halftime deficit.
Twenty-one seconds elapsed in the third quarter before a third ticky-tack foul was called against Shirey and she subbed out but Gentry couldn’t find the basket for more than five minutes. When Still hit a three at the 2:56 mark of the third quarter, breaking an 11-0 Farmington run, the Lady Pioneers had fallen behind 38-25.
Still nailed another trey to end the third with Gentry facing a 44-30 uphill battle. Then a 16-2 Lady Cardinal run over the first 3:59 of the fourth quarter effectively put the game away. Adams ran down a deflection she initiated and laid the ball in. Lawrence converted an old-fashioned 3-point play. Shirey saw J’Myra London breaking to the basket. Lawrence sank a pair of technical foul shots when Gentry coach Toby Tevenbaugh was whistled when a foul was called on the Lady Pioneers battling the 6-feet-3 Bershers for a rebound.
Lawrence added to the Lady Cardinal run by stealing an outlet pass after trapping McCarty deep in the backcourt and putting the ball in the hoop, expanding Farmington’s advantage to 55-30.
McCarty nailed a pair of foul shots for the Lady Pioneers but Farmington’s run continued. Shirey drained a trifecta when Bershers passed out of the post. Shirey recorded another assist to Kaycee McCumber as Farmington built its biggest lead of the game of 28 points, at 60-32 with 4:13 left in the fourth quarter.
It mattered little that Shirey was called for her fourth personal defending a Caswell drive and then assessed a technical foul which counted as her fifth. Three free throws by the Lady Pioneers didn’t make much of a dent and they were still down 62-41 inside two minutes to play.
With the victory in hand Farmington claimed the regional championship and a No. 1 seed going into this week’s Class 4A State tournament at Blytheville. The Lady Cardinals will take on the winner of a first-round game between No. 3 South Arkadelphia and No. 4 East Southside Batesville on Thursday, March 2, at 4 p.m.
The good news for the Gentry girls is, despite the loss, they get a first-round bye at state and await the winner of No. 2 South Star City versus No. 3 East Brookland. The Lady Pioneers begin Class 4A State tournament play on Friday at 7 p.m.