SILOAM SPRINGS -- The Siloam Springs girls basketball team knows it has to start finishing better.
Finishing plays, finishing quarters, finishing games. The Lady Panthers did the latter on Friday, even if they didn't necessarily excel at the other two areas.
Siloam Springs 56, Stilwell 39
Stilwell, Okla.^10^15^7^7^—^39
Siloam Springs^13^12^14^17^—^56
Stilwell, Okla. (6-2): Soap 24, Bruner 6, Bishop 5, Hardbarger 3, Isaacs 1.
Siloam Springs (4-7): Vaughn 28, Hollenback 11, Noel 6, Price 5, Johnson 4, Brown 2.
Siloam Springs went on a 9-2 run to start the fourth quarter and blew open a tight game in a 56-39 victory over Stilwell, Okla., on homecoming at Panther Activity Center.
The victory comes after the Lady Panthers were unable to hold a 10-point lead at Rogers High on Tuesday before falling to the Lady Mounties 46-42.
"Tuesday after the game, we got a pretty good talk," said senior guard Morgan Vaughn, who scored a game-high 28 points. "That's one of our core values is finishing. Wednesday's practice was good. We had situations where we had to finish or if we didn't finish there's a consequence. I really think where we're at the point in the season where if we don't finish we're going to beat ourselves down. We don't want that to happen."
The Lady Panthers had let leads slip away in both the first and second quarters and wound up tied at 25 at halftime. Siloam Springs outscored the Lady Indians 14-7 in the third quarter to take a 39-32 lead going into the fourth.
Vaughn opened the fourth by scoring the Lady Panthers' first seven points. She scored inside and then knocked down a pair of free throws for a 43-34 lead. Vaughn then hit a three-point play to put Siloam Springs up by 12. The Lady Panthers (4-7) would lead by as many as 20 in the fourth quarter.
"That was obviously our focus in practice this week," said Siloam Springs head coach Tim Rippy. "We still didn't do a great job of it tonight early in the game. We're not finishing quarters and halves. ... We were able to do it midway through the third quarter and the fourth quarter. That was good to see a little bit of growth during that stretch."
Hadlee Hollenback added 11 points for the Lady Panthers. Jaycee Soap led Stilwell with 24 points.
Bentonville West 44, Ontario (Canada) St. Francis 37
Imani Montgomery scored six of her nine points in the fourth quarter as West came from behind for a semifinal victory in the KSA Classic Tournament in Orlando, Fla.
The Lady Wolverines (5-3) entered the final 8 minutes with a 30-28 deficit before outscoring their Canadian opponent 16-7 to clinch the win.
Anna Kash added eight points for West, which plays Huntsville, Texas, in today's championship game.
Bentonville High 65, Providence Academy 40
Avery Hughes scored nine of her team-high 15 points in the first quarter to lead Bentonville past Providence Academy during Friday's action in the H.B. Stewart Classic in Greenwood.
The Lady Tigers (8-1) were never threatened as they jumped out to a 21-5 lead in the first quarter and extended that to a 36-15 halftime margin.
Fess Hawkins added 12 for Bentonville, which plays Morritlon at noon today in Greenwood, while Millie Skidmore came off the bench and chipped in 11.
Farmington 57, Rogers Heritage 45
The Lady Cardinals (8-1) finally shook off the Lady War Eagles with a 9-0 fourth-quarter spurt to claim the non-conference win. Heritage (4-5) had sliced a 16-point deficit to 38-31 less than a minute into the fourth quarter on Danielle Dickerson's rebound bucket. But Farmington picked up the pace to pull away for the win.
Alexis Roach led three Lady Cardinals in double figures with 17, while Makenna Vanzant added 15 and Madisyn Pense 13. Brooke Menke led Heritage with 12, while Kayla Richardson added 11.
Sports on 12/16/2017