Lady Mounties Fall Short

— Rogers High couldn’t seal the deal Friday night at the Great 8 Classic.

The Lady Mounties battled back from a early second half 15-point deficit, but senior Taylor Strickland missed two 3-point attempts the finals seconds as Ozark, Mo. held on for a 48-45 victory in a semifinal matchup.

Ozark will face Greenwood in the tournament finals today at 4:30 p.m. in King Arena. Rogers will face crosstown rival Rogers Heritage in the third-place game at 3 p.m. Heritage has never defeated the Lady Mounties.

Strickland scored a game-high 20 points, and her two free throws cut the Ozark lead to 47-45 with 1 minute, 16 seconds left in the game. The Lady Tigers’ Brianna Justis hit a free throw with 30 seconds left for a 48-45 lead and Ozark blocked Strickland’s first attempt before she was off the mark on her closely guarded second attempt as the horn sounded.

“We made runs on Ozark three different times, and that is as good a team as we will play,” Rogers coach Preston Early said. “I think we can grow from this.”

Haylee Beard led three Lady Tigers in double-figures with 13 points. Hannah Cook and Courtney Clancy finished with 12 each, but the Lady Tigers scored just three points the final 6:11 of the game.

“We were in dire straights right there at the end, but we came up with some defensive plays at the end,” Ozark coach Yancey Little said. “We missed some free throws at the end, but we had the big defensive stop at the end.”

Ozark scored the game’s first eight points and they led by 10, 31-21 at halftime. But Rogers couldn’t get over the hump after making just 17 of 31 free throws while turning the ball over 17 times. McKinzie James was also in double figures for Rogers with 10 points.

“The missed free throws put us in a bind,” Early said. “If you want to play at a high level, you have to step up and hit those free throws. If we had done that, we would have won.”

OZARK, MO. 48, ROGERS HIGH 45

Ozark 17 14 10 7 — 48

Rogers 7 14 12 12 — 45

Ozark (2-0): Beard 13, Cook 12, Clancy 12, Reynolds 6, Fugate 4, Bria. Justis 1.

Rogers (2-2): Strickland 20, James 10, Hawley 5, Trexler 3, Warren 3, King 3, Ganoung 1.

Fort Smith Southside 65, LR Christian 37

Drew Jones scored 13 of her game-high 20 points in the first half to lead Fort Smith Southside past Little Christian. Callie White added eight points for the Lady Rebels.

Southside (2-1) will play Beebe at 1:30 p.m. today in the fifth place game. The Lady Warriors will play Little Rock McClellan in the seventh place game at noon.

Alexus Thomas led the Lady Warriors with 14 points.

FORT SMITH SOUTHSIDE 65, LITTLE ROCK CHRISTIAN 37

Southside 17 18 12 18 — 65

LR Christian 14 10 6 7 — 37

Southside (2-1): D. Jones 20, White 8, Hamilton 8, E. Jones 7, Stegall 5, Hines 4, Lewis 4, Rainwater 3, O’Dell 3, Clement 2, Fritsche 1.

LR Christian (3-4): Thomas 14, Rhodes 8, Ruddell 6, Coker 3, Pugh 3, Burks 2, North 1.

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