Lady Lions Win Over Pea Ridge; Lions Fight Hard

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

— Gravette put together its best half of shooting this season last Tuesday night against Pea Ridge.

The winning formula was a simple one for the Lady Lions, who went to the glass early and often in a 45-33 victory over the Lady Blackhawks.

Eight of Gravette’s first 13 baskets were layups and Morgan Bayley scored 18 points as the Lady Lions used an opening 11-1 run to pull away.

Bayley hit 3 of 4 3-pointers in the first half and scored 13 of her game-high 18 points in the first half. Gravette was 13 of 21 from the floor in the first half. Jacy Alsup was also in double figures for Gravette with 11.

“We got some good open looks and they went in tonight,” Gravette coach Duane Thomas said. “I was proud of the kids, they played pretty well most ofthe time.”

Gravette started the game with four straight layups and a 3-pointer by Bayley gave Gravette an 11-1 lead midway through the first quarter. Five straight points by Lexy Paryzek and a free throw by Shantel Morgan allowed the Lady Blackhawks to cut the Gravette lead to 11-7. But Gravette opened thesecond period with a 9-0 run and Bayley’s 3-pointer of the first half helped push the Lady Lions (7-13, 3-7 4A-1 Conference) to a 32-16 half-time lead.

Pea Ridge cut the Lady Lions lead to eight in the third period but Bayley and Taylor Detring closed out the third with 3-pointers for a 40-28 lead.

Pea Ridge (3-13, 0-9) coach Heather Wade said the slow start was too much to overcome.

Adding to Gravette’s scoring were Newell with 6, Nichols, 5, Detring 3 and Himsl 2.

Pea Ridge 61, Lions 43

Cameron Thompson scored 20 points and Pea Ridge outscored the Lions 17-4 in the fourth period to pull away for the victory.

Pea Ridge senior Kip Kelly added 16 points while Ethan Rhine added 12 and Kasey Cooper 11.

Gravette (4-17, 1-9) was 14 of 22 from the line.

Pea Ridge took a 44-39 lead to the final period and opened the final eight minutes with a 10-2 run. Thompson scored nine points in the fourth for the Blackhawks.

Nick Hendren led Gravette with 12 points while Clayton Alexander had 9, Montee 5, Strezelecki and McGarrah 4 apiece and Bilderbeck 3.

Sports, Pages 9 on 02/10/2010