Gravette teams win in opening tournament games

Photo by Randy Moll Tori Foster, junior point guard for the Gravette Lady Lions, brings the ball down court during a home game earlier this season.
Photo by Randy Moll Tori Foster, junior point guard for the Gravette Lady Lions, brings the ball down court during a home game earlier this season.

— The Gravette Lions and Lady Lions won their opening games in Wednesday's 4A-1 Conference Tournament at Berryville and go on to play again on Friday. The Gentry Pioneers and Lady Pioneers finished their seasons with losses in the tournament.

GIRLS

Gravette 48, Prairie Grove 35

The third-seeded Lady Lions had to rally from behind to punch their ticket to regionals with a 13-point victory in the first round of the 4A-1 Conference Tournament at Berryville on Wednesday.

Gravette (19-9) trailed 10-7 at the end of the first quarter and 24-20 at the half, but outscored the sixth-seeded Lady Tigers 28-11 in the second half (including 14-2 in the fourth quarter) to survive and advance to the conference semifinals.

Tori Foster and Cally Kildow paced the Lady Lions with 11 points each while Parker Lopez led Prairie Grove with 11.

The Lady Lions plays host Berryville, the No. 2 seed, at 7 p.m. Friday.

Pea Ridge 46, Gentry 30

Pea Ridge is headed to regionals for the first time in eight years after a convincing win against Gentry at the 4A-1 Conference Tournament at Berryville on Wednesday.

Senior Alli Whatley finished with a season-high 20 points and classmate Jennifer Anthony added 11 to power the Lady Blackhawks. They led 14-8 at the end of the first quarter and 21-15 at halftime before pulling away with a 15-6 scoring spurt in the third quarter.

Whatley scored all 10 of her team's points during a 10-9 fourth quarter advantage.

Junior Hannah Boss led the Lady Pioneers with 21 points.

BOYS

Gravette 53, Gentry 42

The third-seeded Lions survived a scare from sixth-seeded Gentry to advance to the 4A-1 Conference semifinals at Berryville. They also secured a spot in next week's 4A North Regional at West Fork.

Gravette (21-6) used a 9-4 scoring advantage in the third quarter to take control before Gentry (12-11) hit its first three 3-point attempts of the fourth quarter to close the margin to 38-35 at the four minute mark. Later, a 3-pointer by Ethan Hammond again made it a one possession game (44-41), but Gravette sealed the victory by hitting 11 of 12 free throws in the final 2:26.

Gentry's Austin Morris led all scorers with 18 points. He scored 15 to help the Pioneers even the score at 22-22 at halftime, but didn't hit another shot until a 3-pointer with two minutes remaining in regulation. Cole Cripps added 11 points for the Pioneers.

Dayten Wishon led Gravette with 13 points while Chris Childress and Andrew Miller chipped in 11 apiece.

Gravette plays Pea Ridge at 8:30 p.m. in Friday's semifinals.