ELKINS — Greenland Coach Alan Barton argues his team is significantly better than its record might lead people to believe.
He may be on to something.
The Lady Pirates rallied in the fourth quarter Saturday night, defeating Green Forest 47-44 in the championship game of the 1 West-3A Conference tournament at Elkins High School.
Greenland (16-10) was down 37-31 after three quarters but outscored the Lady Tigers 16-7 in the fourth.
“We’re battle-tested,” Barton said. “Just look at who we’ve played. We know what this is about - stay composed, understand what the other team does and try to complete the task.
“The girls did a great job of [all] that today.”
Ashley Riggles opened the fourth quarter with a threepointer, drawing the Lady Pirates within three points, and they tied it at 37 on a threepointer by Ashley Hipps with 6:28 left.
The teams traded points before Caitlyn Johnson put Greenland ahead 42-41 on a layup with 2:24 remaining.
Green Forest (21-4) had the deficit at a single point with less than a minute to go, but Riggles made a key steal ofan inbounds pass and she and Johnson finished off the Lady Tigers with free throws.
“We had two defensive lapses where we didn’t do what we were supposed to do, and they got back in it and tied it,” Green Forest Coach Kyle Farrar said. “That hurt. We didn’t block out at all. Just about every point they had was off second chances.”
Hipps led all players with 19 points. Johnson scored 14 and Riggles added seven.
Tara Heads and Nikki Mullen scored 13 points apiece to lead Green Forest. Tara Mullen had eight.
“We wanted to get it to the fourth closer than we did,” Barton said. “Kyle’s got a great bunch of girls. They’re hard to guard, but I thought we did a good job defending them.” GREENLAND (47) Hipps 19, Johnson 14, Riggles 7, Craise 2, Miller 1, Stone 1, Scott 1.
GREEN FOREST (44) Heads 13, N. Mullen 13, T. Mullen 8, Kodee Powell 6, Evans 2, Kaitlin Powell 2.
Greenland ............... 9 10 12 16 - 47 Green Forest ........... 10 13 14 7 - 44 Boys
WEST FORK 56, CEDARVILLE 32
Jared Johnson poured in 23 points as West Fork (28-2) defeated Cedarville (19-9) in the championship game.
Logan Genz added 12 points for the Tigers.
Keith Simkins scored 15 points to lead Cedarville.
CEDARVILLE (32) Simkins 15, Bishop 6, Fort 6, Wiley 3, Sanchez 2.
WEST FORK (56) Johnson 23, Genz 12, Ferrell 7, Cone 5, Seaman 5, England 4.
Cedarville ............... 5 16 6 5 - 32 West Fork .............. 17 14 13 12 - 56
Sports, Pages 32 on 02/20/2011