CLASS 5A

Lady Wildcats find a way, win

— Watson Chapel didn’t exactly win the way it was expecting, but a 29-28 victory over Nettleton at the Pine Bluff Convention Center on Tuesday was enough to put the Lady Wildcats into the second round of the Class 5A girls state tournament.

“That was a very, very poor shooting performance by us,” Watson Chapel Coach Leslie Henderson said. “It was frustrating for me to watch, so I know they were even more frustrated out there doing it.”

The Lady Wildcats (21-6)led the Lady Raiders (13-14) 4-2 after the first quarter and 12-9 at halftime.

“We will play anybody’s style, but I thought it was important to push the tempo in this game,” Henderson said. “That led to some quick shots and some wild shots that I didn’t really want.”

Watson Chapel led 25-17 midway through the fourth quarter when Nettleton’s Ali Tucker began heating up. Her two three-pointers helped cut the deficit to a single possession. Another three-pointer with 51.3 seconds remaining gave Nettleton its first lead at 28-27.

After trading possessions, Watson Chapel’s Kierra Cox was fouled going to the basket and made both free throws tomake it 29-28 with 13.9 seconds left.

A desperation shot was short by the Lady Raiders, and the Wildcats were able to run out the clock after grabbing the rebound.

“We just couldn’t find the hole, and our posts didn’t have very good games either,” Henderson said. “I guess this was just one of those games. At least I hope that’s all it was.” PARAGOULD 60, DE QUEEN 33

The Paragould Lady Rams had little trouble against the De Queen Lady Lions in the opening round.

Paragould (22-4) led De Queen (9-14) 18-5 after the first quarter and extended that to 29-12 by halftime.

Paragould’s Sydney Layrock led all scorers with 22 points, most of them coming from inside, and Carson Gill made 3 three-pointers and finished with 11 points.

Erin Mitchell made 3 three-pointers in the third quarter and led De Queen with 10 points.

JACKSONVILLE 47, MORRILTON 33

It took a little while, but the Jacksonville Lady Red Devils finally put away the Morrilton Lady Red Devils in the opening round.

Jacksonville (22-4) let Morrilton (17-10) hang around for three quarters before taking its first 10-point lead. The Lady Red Devils led 24-20 at halftime and 30-22 after three quarters.

“I tried to tell the girls that their depth perception was going to be off on these goals like this,” Jacksonville Coach Katrina Mimms said. “They kept playing off, so we kept shooting and missing.”

Jessica Jackson led Jacksonville with 15 points, but Shakyla Hill took over in the fourth quarter when the Lady Devil Dogs began keying on Jackson. Hill scored eight of her 14 points in the final period.

KT Davis scored 10 points to lead Morrilton.

Sports, Pages 26 on 02/27/2013

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