CLASS 6A
GREENWOOD 43, MOUNTAIN HOME 36
WEST MEMPHIS -- It had been six days since Clay Reeves' Greenwood girls had played a game, and he admitted the rust showed.
For much of Friday's Class 6A quarterfinal game against Mountain Home, the Lady Bulldogs played from behind. But the Greenwood defense came to the front in the fourth quarter and led the team to a 43-36 victory over Mountain Home.
"I'm not a fan of first-round byes," Reeves said. "Of course, we won't have to worry about that next year with reclassification. We had good practices this week, but you can't simulate game action. This was one of the lowest-scoring games we've had this year."
Mountain Home (15-16) built a 17-10 lead in the low-scoring game. Lady Bomber Hannah Pfiefer hit two early three-pointers on her way to a game-high 17 points, but Greenwood's defense doubled down on Pfiefer and held Mountain Home to just one field goal in the fourth quarter.
"I love watching [Mountain Home Coach] Del Leonard's teams play," Reeves said. "They are so disciplined and fundamentally sound. We had to stretch out our defense to cover their perimeter scoring."
Greenwood's Haven Clements put her team ahead 29-28 with a layup to open the fourth quarter. Teammate Shea Goodwin hit a driving layup, and Alley Sockey got a basket off a steal in the backcourt to give Greenwood a 36-32 lead with 3:01 remaining.
The Lady Bulldogs (21-9) would not trail again.
Pfeifer's three-pointer with 33 seconds left trimmed the Greenwood lead to 38-36, but it was the only field goal the Lady Bombers would notch in the fourth quarter.
Goodwin, who led her team along with Sockey with nine points, hit two free throws and Clements picked up another steal with 13 seconds left to seal the victory for the Lady Bulldogs.
"We got our hands on a lot of balls," Reeves said. "It's just good to get to play games again, and I think we'll be a lot sharper [Saturday]."
Kinley Fisher added six points for Greenwood.
Abby Martin chipped in nine points for Mountain Home.
Lake Hamilton 66, West Memphis 44
Lake Hamilton came out of the gates quickly, hitting 8 of its first 10 field-goal attempts on the way to an easy quarterfinal victory.
The Lady Wolves (19-13) darted out to a 10-0 lead by hitting their first five shots. By the end of the quarter, Lake Hamilton led 21-5.
The Lady Wolves shot 73.6 percent in the first half on 14-of-19 shooting.
The closest West Memphis could come was 38-26 after Aryah Hazley, the game's leading scorer with 20 points, made a layup.
Jenny Peake paced the Lake Hamilton attack with 17 points while Grace Tedder pumped in 16 and Taylor Wells scored 11.
Lake Hamilton connected on 8 of its 14 three-point attempts.
Sports on 03/03/2018