LONOKE - Berryville followed a familiar script Thursday and kept its season alive.
The Lady Bobcats hit buzzer-beating three-pointers at the end of regulation and the first overtime, then connected on 10 of 13 free throws in the second overtime to beat Heber Springs 66-59 in the first round of the Class 4A state tournament at the Gina Cox Center on the campus of Lonoke High School.
Allison Smith scored 14 of her team-high 19 points in the second half to carry Berryville (21-11), which trailed by as many as 15 points in the first half. Aleksei Smith scored 12 points and Britni Smith added 11 for the Lady Bobcats. Alley Teague had nine points.
“The one thing about this team is that they do not quit,” Berryville Coach Daniel Cornelison said. “We’ve been down in a lot of ballgames, faced double-digit deficits all year only to come back. They just never quit.”
Berryville will take on defending state champion Malvern at 4 p.m. today in the second round, but the Lady Bobcats’ chances of moving on looked bleak in the opening half Thursday.
Berryville led 11-9 after Aleksei Smith’s jumper with 2:15 left in the first quarter, but it didn’t hit another field goal until the 3:34 mark of the second quarter. Heber Springs (23-8) outscored Berryville 16-2 over that span, including a 12-0 run to end the first period. The Lady Bobcats turned over the ball 10 times in the quarter and didn’t get off a shot for the final two minutes.
Heber Springs missed nine of its first 10 shots in the second quarter but still managed to extend its lead to 31-18 going into halftime, but Berryville slowly began to come back behind its three-point shooting.
“We knew at halftime we didn’t execute a lot of the things that we normally do on offense,” Cornelison said. “The girls knew that, and they were disappointed.”
The Lady Bobcats hit 7 three-pointers in the second half, with Allison Smith hitting three during a four-minute stretch over the third and fourth quarters. Her 24-footer with 1:35 left in the game pulled Berryville to within 47-46. Skylar Johnson, who finished with a game-high 24 points, later tacked on a pair of free throws for Heber Springs before Alex McCallister buried a three-pointer just before the buzzer to send the game into overtime.
The Lady Panthers led by as many as five in the extra session and held a 56-53 advantage with 12 seconds left before McCallister drilled another three-pointer with 2.2 seconds remaining to force a second overtime.
Makenzie Martin had 11 points while Mary Simmons and Hannah Johnson had eight each for Heber Springs.
LONOKE 52, STAR CITY 44
Lonoke (21-8) used a huge run in the fourth quarter to turn back a late rally by Star City (26-4).
Sophomore Jerrelyn McCall scored 21 points and grabbed 11 rebounds for the Lady Jackrabbits, who outscored the Lady Bulldogs 22-15 over the game’s final eight minutes after Star City had fought back from an eight-point, third-quarter deficit. Callie Whitfield scored nine points for Lonoke, while Keresha Johnson finished with eight. Amanda Sexton and Eboni Willis followed with seven points apiece.
Jaida Harden led Star City with 23 points. Lindsey Kiernan added nine points, and Larena Walker had eight.
OZARK 55, NASHVILLE 30
Olivia Melton scored 16 points and pulled down eight rebounds to send Ozark (27-5) into the second round with an easy victory over Nashville (19-12).
Abby Helmert added nine points for the Lady Hillbillies, who led 30-13 at halftime and held a 34-19 rebounding advantage by the game’s end.
Nashville led 4-2 lead following a 15-footer by Mashayla Wright 59 seconds into the game, but Nashville didn’t score again until 5:09 remained in the second quarter. Ozark closed the first period on a 14-0 run and never looked back.
Kassidy Snowden led Nashville with 14 points.
Sports, Pages 23 on 03/07/2014