After knocking off Class 5 Joplin to win its pool, the Class 2 Purdy Lady Eagles continued the giant-killing run with a 67-46 win over Class 4 McDonald County on Feb. 4 in the championship game of the 2017 Seneca Invitational Girls Basketball Tournament.
Purdy built a 28-19 lead at halftime and used a 21-13 advantage in the third quarter to stretch the lead to 17 points entering the fourth quarter.
"They are a pretty good team, and anytime they got an open shot they knocked it down tonight," said coach Blake Short. "We didn't rebound real well, and they got several putbacks. I felt good being down just nine at half because I didn't think we played very well in the first half. But in the second half, we just let girls cross our face and get layups. We would reach in and foul them and they made their free throws (21 for 32)."
Purdy scored the first seven points of the game and led the entire way. McDonald County cut the early led to 7-6 behind five points from Samantha Frazier before Purdy scored six out of the last eight points in the quarter.
The Lady Eagles opened the second quarter with an 11-1 run to build a 24-9 lead, but McDonald County responded with 10-4 spurt to cut the lead to 28-19 at halftime.
The second half was all Purdy as the Lady Eagles built a 27-point lead at one point in the fourth quarter.
Frazier and Ragan Wilson each scored 12 points to lead McDonald County followed by Tricia Wattman with nine points, Madison Hall and Meagan Mills five each, Kylie Helm two and Caitlynn Sedillos one.
"Give Purdy a lot of credit -- they are a good basketball team," Short said. "But I feel like we are better than we played today. We didn't do some little things that would have made it a better game. We still had a great week. It was a good stepping stone for us for the final five games of the regular season and into the districts."
McDonald County falls to 7-13 entering its Feb. 10 game at Providence Academy in Rogers. Tipoff is at 6 p.m.
Monett
In its second pool game, McDonald County used a 9-3 advantage in the third quarter to stretch a 16-14 halftime lead into an eight-point advantage entering the fourth quarter on the way to a 39-30 win over Monett to advance to the tournament finals.
Frazier scored 16 points, including eight in the fourth quarter, and Wilson had 10 to lead McDonald County. Frazier's total included a six for six performance at the free throw line in the fourth quarter to help the Lady Mustangs hold off Monett down the stretch.
"We started out slow (Monett took an 8-0 lead to start the game) and then switched to a full-court man that got us going," Short said. "Sam (Samantha) Frazier really gave us a big boost and played a really good game. Ragan (Wilson) played really well. She ran the offense and forced the issue and hit some shots. We were good after the first three minutes. I think we were a little tired from the night before (win over Seneca), but we did what we had to do to win."
Rounding out the scoring for McDonald County were Wattman with five points, Hall four and Sedillos and Cloee Helm two each.
Seneca
The Lady Mustangs used a 13-5 advantage in the fourth quarter to claim a 36-31 win over Seneca in its opening game of pool play.
Hall opened the fourth quarter with a three pointer to tie the game at 26-26. The teams traded baskets before Wattman's old-fashioned three-point play put McDonald County on top for good at 31-30 with 4:56 left in the game.
After McDonald County's defense got a stop, Frazier hit a trey with 2:44 left to put the Lady Mustangs out front 34-30 with 2:44 left. Wilson hit a short jumper with less than a minute to go to seal the win.
McDonald County led 12-11 after the first quarter before Seneca tied the game at 19-19 at intermission.
Wattman finished with 11 points to lead McDonald County. Rounding out the scoring for the Lady Mustangs were Hall and Frazier with eight points each, Wilson seven and Kylie Helm two.
Sports on 02/09/2017