HOT SPRINGS -- The trilogy between Mammoth Spring and Norfork ended the same way the sequel did on the Bank OZK Arena floor.
Brynn Washam and Tay Davis combined for 39 points as Mammoth Spring ran away for a 57-47 victory to capture its second straight Class 1A girls state title.
Norfork (34-2) won the first championship meeting between the two in 2022 when it claimed a 48-43 decision, but Mammoth Spring (40-5) returned the favor last season with a 45-36 win. The rubber match also belonged to Mammoth Spring.
The Lady Bears never let the Lady Panthers hold a lead and thwarted a few fourth-quarter charges to repeat as champions.
"Just really proud," Mammoth Spring Coach Scott Small said. "It's different when you come back after losing the first one and try to get that redemption game. It's a lot different trying to stay on top.
"So I'm just really proud of our kids because they've handled both situations, over what I've felt like the last two years, with a lot of dedication and hard work and everything that you want kids to do."
The Lady Bears did what they intended to do coming in. Mammoth Spring shot 44.4% (20 of 45) and held a 30-25 rebounding edge. Small's group also took care of the basketball during the middle quarters, which allowed it to establish a large lead. It also didn't hurt that the Lady Bears got big games from their standouts.
Washam finished with 22 points and 5 rebounds, while Davis had 17 points, 9 rebounds and 2 steals for Mammoth Spring. Adrianna Corbett tacked on 12 points and 5 rebounds.
Keely Blanchard dealt with foul problems all game but still managed to put in 16 points for Norfork, which hit 16 of 43 shots (37.2%). That percentage, according to Lady Panthers Coach Luke Cornett, didn't help his team's chances at all.
"We just couldn't make any shots, and that led to the situation that we're in now," he said. "We shoot it a little bit below average, and we're right there in the game. But we just really struggled for whatever reason, and sometimes [shots] don't go.
"A lot of times this year, they went for us. [On Saturday] they didn't."
Cate Shaddy tallied 15 points and six rebounds, and Liza Shaddy ended with 9 points, 6 rebounds and 3 steals for the Lady Panthers.
Mammoth Spring scored the game's first six points and built a 9-1 cushion. Several of those points came off six Lady Panther turnovers.
Norfork settled in midway through the opening quarter and began forcing mistakes. The Lady Panthers held Mammoth Spring scoreless for the final 4:33 on the first quarter and got to within 11-10 on Blanchard's layup early in the second before trouble struck.
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1A Girls State Basketball Championship
Photos from the 1A Girls State Basketball Championship game in Hot Springs.
Blanchard, who averaged nearly 20 points during Norfork's previous three state tournament games, spent the last 4:51 minutes of the half watching from the sidelines after she was hit with her third foul. That left a gaping void in the lineup, particularly on offense, for the Lady Panthers, but they were able to overcome it for a while.
Norfork was trailing 14-10 when Blanchard picked up that third foul, but it actually tied the game at 16-16 with 2:35 left in the second quarter on a dip-and-under inside move by Shaddy.
But the Lady Bears raced back on the opposite end and got a three-point play from Corbett to initiate a 10-2 run. Washam scored the final six points of the rally, including a putback just before the halftime buzzer, to give Mammoth Spring a 26-18 advantage.
"I think when the best player is sitting on the bench and not on the floor, it doesn't go well for us," Cornett said. "Any time we keep her on the floor it's great. Having Kasey [Moody] in the same situation, they do so much for our team. It just puts you in a really bad spot."
Both teams picked it things considerably in the third quarter. They shot a combined 8 of 13 by the four-minute mark of the period, but Mammoth Spring began to slowly extend its margin by capitalizing off Norfork miscues.
Back-to-back turnovers led to scores from Davis and Corbett during the midst of an 8-2 run that pushed the Lady Bears' lead to 42-27 by the time the quarter ended.
Mammoth Spring's advantage ballooned to 51-33 in the fourth, but Norfork did make a late last stand. The Lady Panthers ran off 10 of the next 12 points to trim eight points off their deficit over a three-minute span. But that 18-point bulge was essentially too much from them to overcome.
"We talk about being a good team versus a great team and a great team versus a special team," Small said. "Good teams can win a lot of tournaments, and great teams can win state championships. But it takes something really special to do what they've done. They were able to keep that target on their back all year and come out, be focused for games and do things right.
"Just very proud of what they've done."