FORT SMITH — It has been nine years since Mount St. Mary has played in the Class 7A State Tournament, but the Belles are just a step away from the postseason this year.
Mount St. Mary built a double-digit lead in the second half and withstood a couple of flurries by Fort Smith Southside to hang on for a 48-45 7A-Central victory at Southside Gymnasium.
All that is left for the Belles (10-15, 4-8) to do to earn their first playoff appearance since the 2007 tournament is to win one game or have the Lady Mavericks lose one of their final two games of the regular season.
“You can hear how excited they are in the locker room,” Belles Coach Lauren Ramsey said. “It’s been a while since we’ve been in the state tournament. I was a junior on [the 2007] team. This has been a goal of ours all season. We knew we would have to work hard to have a chance, and the girls have bought into what we wanted.”
Mount St. Mary built leads of 10 or more points on three occasions, only to see Southside fight back, thanks in part to forcing 20 turnovers by the Belles.
“Last year, they would have put their heads down,” Ramsey said. “This team has done a really good job of not letting things get to them. Southside put a couple of runs on us, but we answered with a run. We did a great job of staying strong.”
The Lady Mavericks (7-17, 3-9) trailed 46-36 with 3:38 left in the game, but Emily Lockhart’s stick back with 25 seconds left saw the Belles’ lead trimmed to 48-45. A turnover gave Southside the ball with 17 seconds left and a chance to tie.
The Mount St. Mary defense held as the Lady Mavericks had two shots in the final five seconds rim out.
“We were in man-to-man, and we switched everything,” Ramsey said. “We knew they would set up something to try and get an open look. They had a ball screen, we switched and were able to get a hand in their face.”
Lady Mavericks Coach Steve Brown said he was trying to get a shot for senior guard Kelly Carson.
“We tried to get a high screen for Kelly, [but] it didn’t work out,” Brown said. “We still had a shot there at the end. I told them they were going to get one or two looks, but it comes down to execution.”
Mount St. Mary led 20-15 at halftime thanks to seven first-half points from Valerie Kauffman. Southside forced 9 first-half turnovers but made only 4 of 24 shots.
“We let them make too many runs against us,” Brown said. “We shot the ball not very good in the first half but were better the second half. It’s really frustrating. We executed the offense like we wanted and had nice kickouts, but we couldn’t get them to drop.”
The Belles led 12-8 after one quarter thanks to a 6-0 spurt in the final two minutes, capped by a Kauffman basket with four seconds left.
Peyton Grice scored 10 points to lead Mount St. Mary. Montana Smith’s game-high 12 points paced Southside. Carson added 11.
BOYS
FS SOUTHSIDE 61,
LR CATHOLIC 55
The Mavericks (7-17, 2-10) used a 29-10 second-half run to turn a deficit into a lead as the rallied past the Rockets (0-20, 0-12).
Catholic led 35-27 late in the third period, but Southside rallied to get within 37-33 to start the fourth quarter.
The Mavericks opened the fourth quarter with an 8-0 run, all from Taye Gatewood, to take the lead for good at 41-37. A 15-5 run increased the lead to 56-45 with two minutes to play.
Gatewood and Zion Releford each scored 15 to lead Southside while Ike Moore added 12. Jack Mathis scored 16 to pace Catholic while Phillips Allison added 15.