LITTLE ROCK — Depending on how one looks at it, the Star City Bulldogs picked a bad time to get cold or the McGehee Owls (23-2) picked a great time to get hot.
Either way, the Owls won the rubber match of their three-game series this season with a 63-54 victory over Star City in the semifinals of the Class 4A South region.
Star City’s Sheldon Prater hit a three-pointer from the corner to cut McGehee’s lead to 40-39 with 7:35 left. But the Owls made 9 of 12 shots in the fourth quarter while the Bulldogs were 6 of 19 from the field in the quarter.
“We got into a rhythm, and we started working the ball insideout,” McGehee Coach Jerome Pace said. “Once we do that, we find that we have a lot more success.”
Malcolm Curry scored nine of his game-high 22 points in the fourth quarter.
Damar Reed made five threepointers and scored 19 points for the Bulldogs (16-12), who beat the Owls 61-60 at home on Jan. 25 and then lost at McGehee 60-44 to close the regular season Feb. 18.
Kendall Lambert scored 13 points and Zach Ellis added 12 for McGehee. Corey Hellums had 12 points and Prater added 10 for Star City.
Sports, Pages 24 on 02/26/2011