Gentry girls win two, lose in semifinals

— The Gravette girls basketball team was eliminated from the 1-4A District tournament by Gentry (10-15) with a 39-38 loss on Feb. 12.

The Lady Pioneers fought back from an 11-3 deficit. Gravette’s Monica White had 4 points early, and Samantha Pruitt hit a pair of 3-pointers as the Lady Lions caused problems by trapping the corners.

Aspen Cripps nailed a trifecta to get Gentry on the scoreboard. Then after an exchange of 3-point shots, the Lady Pioneers got six consecutive points from freshman Haley Borgeteien-James.

Gentry coach Tim Rippy said Borgeteien-James, who was just moved up to varsity, played really well.

“She gave us a boost when we were struggling to score, she hit three straight baskets for us.”

Gravette led 19-13 at halftime and 28-22 after three quarters. Gentry used a 14-6 run to tie the score at 36-all on Shelby Hammond’s steal of an errant Gravette inbounds pass. She was fouled and missed a free throw that would have put Gentry ahead but made up by grabbing a rebound when White missed a close-range shot.

Borgeteien-James had the honor of putting Gentry ahead by making a free throw with 1:06 to go but was called for a blocking foul 30 seconds later, sending Destaney Wishon to the line. Wishon made both and Gravette held a slim, 38-37 advantage.

Karoline Page then knocked down an 18-footer from the left corner to give Gentry back the lead, at 39-38, with 22 seconds showing. Borgeteien-James anticipated a lob and stole a pass on the baseline but had her feet knocked out from under her and the ball was awarded to Gravette underneath their own basket with 4 seconds remaining.

After timeouts by both teams, the Lady Lions got the ball in to Pruitt, but her shot wouldn’t fall and Gentry won, 39-38.

With the loss, Gravette was eliminated from postseason play.

“We got the ball to Samantha Pruitt, who was who we wanted to get it to. She got the shot off; it just didn’t go in,” said Gravette coach Will Pittman. “The ball bounced in ways that didn’t work for us.”

Pittman wished he could have all five seniors, including White, Wishon, Jessica Bayley and Whitney DeWitt back next year, saying you couldn’t ask for better kids.

Rippy had high praise for Hammond’s clutch shooting during the fourth quarter comeback.

“Shelby stepped up at the end and hit back-toback threes for us,” Rippy said. “I can’t say enough about our kids and their desire to win.” GENTRY 39, GRAVETTE 38 Gentry 7 6 9 17 - 39 Gravette 11 8 9 10 - 38 Gravette : Monica White 5 4-4 14, Destaney Wishon 2 7-8 12, Samantha Pruitt 1 3-6 6, Whitney DeWitt 2 1-2 5, Kyndai Galyean 2 0-0 4. Totals 11 14-19 38.

Gentry (11-15): Haley Borgeteien-James 3 5-6 11, Shelby Hammond 4 0-1 11, Karoline Page 3 -2 8, Tara Arnold 2 1-2 5, Kristen Flesner 2 0-0 4. Totals 14 8-11 39.

3-point goals: Gravette 3 (De-Witt, Pruitt, Wishon). Gentry 3 (Hammond 3).

GENTRY - Farmington defeated Gentry, 53-40, in the semifinal of the district tournament on Friday, pulling away froma narrow 41-40 lead after Gentry’s Jordan Olds hit a 3-pointer from the left wing with 3:23 left.

After four straight Cardinal free throws, Tichina Scales put in a Farmington miss to push the margin to 47-40 with 1:15 to go and Gentry remained scoreless over the final minutes.

“We got to the rim a lot especially early in the game, but we missed our first six layup opportunities,” said Gentry coach Tim Rippy. “We struggled to finish early in the game. Farmington did a good job of contesting shots.”

Gentry will play Dover in the first-round of the North Regional at Maumelle on Wednesday.

Gentry upstages Lincoln By Mark Humphrey

GENTRY - Tara Arnold scored 16 points as Gentry (11-15) eliminated Lincoln (19-8) from the 1-4A District tournament, beating a team to which they lost 51-30 the previous week.

In contrast to that game when Gentry coach Tim Rippy felt his team didn’t play with great effort, the Lady Pioneers played tough. The biggest difference was senior guard Tara Arnold, who scored only 2 points in the Feb. 8 loss.

“Tara’s had a great year. She’s struggled a little bit the last couple of weeks. I challenged her after last night. I said we needed a big game out of her, and she came through for us,” Rippy said.

Arnold kept Gentry close early, hitting a 3-pointer to pull Gentry within, 6-5, at the 4:36 mark of the first quarter and hit a pair of free throws to give Gentry a 4-point lead, at 41-37, with 2:45 left in the fourth quarter. Arnold tallied 16 points to lead all scorers.

The other major difference was the emergenceof freshman Haley Borgeteien-James, who scored 15 points and added a new dimension to the Gentry lineup to which Lincoln struggled to adjust.

“She can play all five positions, she can handle the ball or post up. She’s a hard matchup,” Rippy said. “We’ve only had one day of practice with her. We bought ourselves a little bit of time. Hopefully, we can get more comfortable playing with her.”

Borgeteien-James put in a Gentry miss at the buzzer to give the Lady Pioneers, going into the halftime break and keeping Gentry within one, at 22-21. She had 9 points in the second quarter, scoring three times on putbacks.

Hayle Sugg led Lincoln with 11 points.

The win advanced Gentry to the district semifinals against second-seeded Farmington on Friday and, just as importantly, assured the Lady Pioneers of a spot in the Regional tournament.

Gentry 9 12 9 21 - 51 Lincoln 15 7 10 11 - 43 LINCOLN (19-8): Hayle Sugg 8 3-5 19, Jaycee Neeley 3 4-5 10, Shelby Rowe 2 4-7 8, Courtney Lloyd 3 0-0 6, Madison Rich 1 1-2 4, Nikki Thordsen 2 0-0 4. Totals 19 12-19 51.

Gentry (11-15): Tara Arnold 5 4-6 16, Borgeteien-James 6 3-4 15, Shelby Hammond 1 4-4 6, Destiny Thomas 2 0-0 6, Brookelyn Williamson 0 4-6 4, Karoline Page 1 1-2 3, Jordan Olds 1 0-0 3. Totals 16 13-18 51.

3-point goals: Gentry 6 (Arnold 2, Thomas 2, Olds), Lincoln 1 (Rich).

Gentry girls kept from final round by Farmington From Staff Reports

GENTRY - The Lady Pioneers were unable to keeppace with the Lady Cards from Farmington in the semi-finals on Friday.

Farmington girls took an early lead and held on to that lead throughout the game, outscoring Gentry in all but the third period.

Haley Borgeteien-James led the Gentry girls in scoring with 12 points, followed by Shelby Hammond with 10.

FARMINGTON 53 GENTRY 40 Gentry 6 14 9 11 - 40Farmington 12 16 8 17 - 53 Farmington (20-7): Kristi DuChanois 6 7-8 20, Haley Maxwell 4 5-5 14, Tiffany Rhame 3 2-3 8, Tichina Scales 3 2-2 8, Lindsey Blackburn 1 1-2 3. Totals 17 17-20 53.

Gentry (11-16): Haley Borgeteien-James 4 4-5 12, Shelby Hammond 3 3-3 10, Tara Arnold 3 0-0 7, Destiny Thomas 2 2-3 6, Kristen Flesner 1 1-2 3, Jordan Olds 1 0-0 3, Karoline Page 1 0-2 2. Totals 14 9-11 40.

3-point goals: Gentry 3 (Arnold, Hammond, Olds), Farmington 2 (DuChanois, Maxwell).

Sports, Pages 9 on 02/20/2013