Lady Pioneers finish strong against Gentry

— The Gentry Lady Pioneers had struggled most of their season at positively ending each quarter.

So a few weeks ago coach Tim Rippy started emphasizing the final few seconds of quarters. He’d put a little time on the clock during workouts and asked his team to score.

The repetitive practice helped Gentry defeat Gravette 51-43 on Feb. 9 bringing relief to its coach and improving its 4A-1 Conference record to 7-5.

“That’s something we’ve worked hard on in practice the last few weeks,” Rippy said. “We just hadn’t (finished quarters) well at all earlier this season. That first shot was a fluke, but we’ll take it obviously.”

Gentry (17-7) drained 3-pointers at the end of the first and second quarters and put in a lay-up at the end of the third. Those eight points ended up representing the Lady Pioneers’ margin of victory over Gravette (8-16, 3-10).

The first 3-pointer left the hands of Kelsey Whitten just before time expired in the first. She banked in the shot from 23 feet after the Lady Lions claimed their biggestlead at 11-6. Whitten’s 3-pointer with 8.5 seconds left in the half capped a 10-3 run and put Gentry up 23-20.

Tiauna Wilkins’ driving lay-up with 4.5 seconds remaining in the third made it 39-28.

Of course, Gentry didn’t win only because of its late-quarter prowess. Terra Jones dominated inside for the Lady Pioneers. The 5-foot-9 junior nailed eight of her 10 shots and posted game-highs in points (21) and rebounds (eight).

Jones scored seven straight points in the second quarter and tallied seven consecutive points again to open the fourthand help Gentry extend its lead to 48-33.

Gravette, which thrived from the free-throw line (21-of-28) but struggled from the floor (10-of-36), trimmed the Lady Pioneers’ lead to 48-41.

But Whitten, who added 12 points, dropped in three straight free throws to halt the Gravette rally.

“I’m proud of the way we responded to our slow start,” Rippy said. “We rushed most of our offensive possessions and took bad shots early. In the second half, we did a much better job of getting the ball inside and working inside out. We were just more patient.”

Sports, Pages 7 on 02/17/2010