North Little Rock took advantage of Fort Smith Northside's foul troubles to hand the No. 1 Lady Bears their first loss of the season Friday night.
Senior guard Jordyn Neal hit all four of her free-throw attempts in the final 42.4 seconds of overtime to help the Lady Charging Wildcats earn a 70-64 victory over Northside in a 6A-Central Conference game in North Little Rock.
Neal finished with a team-high 19 points as North Little Rock claimed the No. 3 seed in the Class 6A state tournament, which begins in two weeks at Bentonville West.
Northside (23-1, 11-1) had four players foul out, including their three leading scorers.
"They were playing a lot of people who weren't on our scouting report," North Little Rock Coach Daryl Fimple said. "But that's a great win for us, giving us some momentum heading into the state tournament. It's a good time to start playing well."
North Little Rock (15-9, 9-3) could have wrapped it up in regulation, but the Lady Cats made only two of their final nine free-throw attempts in the fourth quarter. They did, however, turn it around in the extra period, hitting seven of their final eight free throws.
Northside trailed 52-43 with 4:17 left in regulation, but sophomore Jersey Wolfenbarger willed the Lady Bears back into the contest, scoring her team's final 11 points, including an off-balanced shot from the free-throw line with 5.2 seconds to play that tied the game at 58-58.
Wolfenbarger hit two more free throws in the overtime, giving the Lady Bears a 62-61 lead with 2:49 remaining, but the 6-2 point guard collected her fifth foul with 1:17 to play.
Wolfenbarger was not the only Lady Bear troubled by fouls. Senior forward Sara Bershers collected three fouls in the game's first 10 minutes, and was held to 10 points and 4 rebounds in only 12 minutes of playing time. Junior Jazz Coleman scored a game-high 20 points and had 12 rebounds, but she fouled out with 1:08 left in overtime.
"North Little Rock played really, really well. They hit some critical shots when they had to," Northside Coach Rickey Smith said. "But I can tell you right now that we're not going to win many games with Sara Bershers playing 12 minutes. And we're not going to win anything in overtime with four starters sitting beside me."
The teams traded leads five times in the first half, with Northside holding a 26-25 advantage at the half. North Little Rock freshman Amauri Williams banked in a 3-footer 15 seconds into the third quarter, and the Lady Cats were never behind again until overtime.
North Little Rock scored 12 of the first 14 points of the second half and led 43-35 heading into the final quarter.
Senior Kennedy Tucker, who hit a key three-pointer in the overtime, added 15 points. Williams put in 14 points, and Senior De'Myla Brown finished with 12 points. Neal also had 6 rebounds, 3 steals and 4 assists.
Sports on 02/16/2019