SILOAM SPRINGS -- Siloam Springs saved its best for the second half in rallying to beat Alma on Wednesday night.
The Lady Panthers rallied from a 13-point deficit to clip the Airedalettes 49-45 in 5A/6A District 1 action at Panther Activity Center.
Alma led 29-16 late in the second quarter and 31-21 at halftime. The Lady Panthers pulled within 37-36 to start the fourth quarter after outscoring Alma 15-6 in the third and took the lead for good to open the fourth on a 3-pointer by Jael Harried.
Siloam Springs pulled ahead by as many as seven points in the fourth quarter and Morgan Vaughn's free throws with 12.7 seconds left sealed the win.
"We didn't panic tonight," said Siloam Springs coach Tim Rippy. "You could kind of tell at halftime we needed something positive to happen, but we talked about just staying the course. What we're doing is good enough, but we've just got to execute a little bit better and finish better, and we started to do that midway through the third quarter.
"Then I felt like we gave up some key rebounds, but down the stretch we started getting them all. I thought that was a big response by our team to answer that challenge."
Alma, which only scored 24 points against Siloam Springs in a 45-24 loss on Jan. 12, came out hot in the first half and hit five 3-pointers.
A 3-pointer from Brooke Yates gave the Airedalettes a 29-16 lead, but Vaughn answered with a 3-pointer and Emery Brown scored inside to bring the Lady Panthers within 10 at the half.
Hadlee Hollenback got the Siloam Springs rally started in the third with a pair of free throws, followed by a Kenlie Noel bucket and 3-pointer banked in by Vaughn to make it 33-28.
Alma went on a 4-0 run to go up 37-28, but Siloam Springs ended the half on an 8-0 surge. Shelby Johnson scored two baskets and hit two free throws, and Hollenback scored inside to bring the Lady Panthers within 37-36.
Harried's 3-pointer to open the fourth gave the Lady Panthers a 39-37 lead. Vaughn then hit a free throw and Brown scored inside to make it 42-38.
Harried found Vaughn with a nice pass inside for a 44-40 lead and the Lady Panthers extended to 47-40 with a little more than a minute to play.
Missed free throws from the Lady Panthers allowed Alma to close within 47-45, and Alma had a chance to tie after Harried missed two more free throws, but the Airedalettes turned the ball over on Siloam Springs' end of the floor. That allowed the Lady Panthers to get the ball to Vaughn, who was fouled and hit two foul shots to set the final score.
"That's been the story this year," said Alma coach Codey Mann. "We're 7-16, and that's what a 7-16 team does. You're not fortunate to have the right calls on the road. Right now we're just not good enough to overcome that kind of stuff. We have trouble playing through some things.
"We're good enough to compete with a lot of people. We're just having trouble winning games. A great example of that is 47-45, a girl misses the front end of a 1-and-1 and we get the rebound and turn it over. That's been this whole year."
Vaughn led Siloam Springs with 18 points, while Hollenback had 11. Cassidy Cooper led Alma with 13 points.
Siloam Springs 49, Alma 45
Alma 19 12 6 8 -- 45
Siloam Springs 13 8 15 13 -- 49
Alma (7-16, 1-8): Cooper 13, McGhee 9, Hoffsommer 8, Bailey 7, Yates 5, Duncan 3.
Siloam Springs (8-17, 4-6): Vaughn 18, Hollenback 11, Johnson 8, Noel 4, Harried 4, Brown 4.
Boys: Alma 65, Siloam Springs 48
It was a tale of two halves between Alma and Siloam Springs.
The Panthers hit 7 of 9 from behind the 3-point line in the first half and led by as many as 12 points. The Airedales, however, caught fire in the third quarter with six 3-pointers and outscored Siloam Springs 24-6 to turn the game around and take a victory inside Panther Activity Center.
"Well we haven't played in over a week," said Alma coach Stan Flenor. "(Tuesday) was a week since we've played, and we knew we were going to be a little rusty. Siloam, give them credit. They came out and ran their offense and made threes, and when they do that, we were guarding them for 35 to 40 seconds at time. That makes it difficult, and that's what teams will do to you if you allow them to.
"We came back in the second half and we got to play the tempo that we wanted to and force a lot of turnovers. We settled in and ran our offense and hit open shots. We hit a few threes and got to the foul line and just got a lot more comfortable."
Down 32-24 at halftime, Garrison Jensen and Tanner Shelton buried 3-pointers to start the second half for Alma and Brayden Johnson scored inside as the Airedales cut the lead to 34-32.
Diego Flores scored for Siloam Springs to extend the Panthers' lead to 36-32, but Kade Wood hit a pair of free throws to get back within 36-34 and Christian Stahler canned a 3-pointer to put Alma ahead for good 37-36.
Cejay Mann hit back-to-back 3-pointers for a 45-36 lead, and Stahler hit another at the third quarter-buzzer for a 48-38 lead. The Airedales extended that lead in the fourth quarter and scored 11 of their 17 points from the free-throw line.
Jensen led Alma with 15 points, while Johnson and Mann each had 14 and Shelton 10. Spencer Lashley led Siloam Springs with 15 points, while Jacob Wakefield had nine.
"Alma turned up the heat and played a lot more physical in the second half and gave us some fits," said Siloam Springs coach Tim Stewart. "We had trouble handling their pressure. Then offensively, Alma does a great job moving the ball with their size and finding those corner threes and inside out threes and a timely rebound.
"Man, it'd seem like we'd get a break and they'd get a timely rebound. Give Stan and his guys a lot of credit. They turned up the heat in the second half. I thought we played really comfortable in the first half. A lot of poise on both ends, and we just weren't able to continue that in the second half."
Alma 65, Siloam Springs 48
Alma 13 11 24 17 -- 65
Siloam Springs 12 20 6 10 -- 48
Alma (13-7, 7-2): Jensen 15, Johnson 14, Mann 14, Shelton 10, C. Stahler 6, Wood 6.
Siloam Springs (6-19, 4-6): Lashley 15, Wakefield 9, Wright 7, Vachon 6, Pettit 5, Sauer 4, Flores 2.
Preps Basketball on 02/08/2018