FORT SMITH -- Fort Smith Northside needed a push down the stretch Saturday night in the championship game of the Tournament of Champions at Southside Gym.
Junior forward Aahliyah Jackson provided one, scoring five of her game-high 15 points over the final five minutes to lead the Lady Bears to a 44-40 victory over East Central (Okla.)
Tournament of Champions
At Fort Smith Southside
SATURDAY’S RESULTS
Championship
FS Northside 44, East Central 40
Fayetteville 55, FS Southside 47
North Little Rock 57, Incarnate Word 37
Mena vs. Ozark, forfeit
"We wanted to win this because we haven't been able to win one in a while," Northside Coach Rickey Smith said. "I'm proud of the way we won it. This was a huge win for us, and hopefully we can build off it."
Northside, which has won the tournament five times with its last title coming in 2001, used a 12-2 run over the last 4:37 to pull away.
Junior forward Lauren Krissman hit a three-point basket to cut the lead to 40-39, then Jackson scored on a three-point play with 32 seconds left for a 42-40 lead.
Northside (9-0) then forced a turnover to hold on to the lead after a strong effort on defense in the final quarter. East Central (5-3) scored a basket in the opening minutes of the fourth quarter but didn't score again until 2:40 was left in the game.
"Our defense is getting better," Smith said. "We didn't shoot well, so we had to play great defense."
Northside scored its 12 points in the fourth quarter over the final 4:37.
"We had open looks, but they just weren't falling," Smith said. "We were settling for open jumpers and we attacked the basket. I'm proud of our team effort. It was a heck of a win."
Jackson, who had 10 first-half points, scored her first points of the second half with 4:16 left to play and was big for the Lady Bears down the stretch.
"She is real good," Smith said of Jackson, who was named tournament MVP. "She got tired, has been battling some injuries and has to play herself into game shape. She was tired, but she scored a lot of points for us."
East Central was led by Chantel Mack with 13 points. Senior forward Tiarra McDonald added 12 points and a team-high six rebounds.
The Lady Cardinals took a 32-27 lead late in the third quarter as it used a 15-8 run that was capped by a basket from senior forward Ashlin Mead.
Northside took a 7-6 lead into the first quarter after a slow start by both teams.
Jackson picked up the pace for the Lady Bears in the second quarter, scoring all seven points in a key run in the quarter.
Northside used a 7-4 run and looked like it might pull away toward the end of the second quarter with a 19-12 lead, but senior guard Chantel Mack hit a jumper at the buzzer for East Central to cut the lead to 19-14 heading into the break.
Sports on 12/14/2014