HOT SPRINGS -- Bay woke up just in time to hold off Wonderview in the Class 1A girls state championship game.
Junior Sarah Blackman and sophomore Mallory Hartley each scored 12 points as the Lady Yellowjackets earned a 40-35 victory in front of 2,640 fans at the Bank of the Ozarks Arena.
Bay went the first 5:13 of the fourth quarter without a point, but MVP Whitlee Layne sparked a game-ending rally to send the Lady Yellowjackets (33-9) to the program's first state title.
"Of course I was worried," Bay Coach Braden Watson said of the Lady Yellowjackets' fourth-quarter scoring drought. "I called three timeouts."
Wonderview trailed 30-19 with 1:31 left in the third quarter, but behind six points from junior center Sydney Higgins the Lady Daredevils (38-5) pulled to within 30-29 with 3:35 remaining.
Bay scored 10 points in the game's final 2:47, going 6 of 7 from the free-throw line. Layne started the outburst with a layup, then she grabbed a rebound and assisted on a layup by Hartley at the 2:10 mark.
Wonderview got as close as three twice in the game's final 1:47, but the Lady Devils never had the ball with a chance to tie.
"Credit Bay for coming up with the big baskets and big plays at the end," Wonderview Coach Jeremy Simon said. "They scored down the stretch when they had to."
It was Wonderview who suffered through a first-half dry spell.
Guard Faith Byers scored her team's first four points, but Bay responded by scoring the next 12 points. The Lady Daredevils went more than nine minutes of the first half without a field goal.
Wonderview finished 13 of 42 from the floor, including an 0 of 17 performance from three-point range.
"Looking at the stat sheet, and we've got a good shooting team, and we're 0 of 17 from outside," Simon said. "Stat wise, this is the best shooting team I've ever coached. Throughout the year in tough games, they've come up with some big shots.
"For us to be 0 for 17 and to only lose by five, just think if just one or two of those had went in. That was a big part of the game."
Bay hit 3 of its first 5 three-pointers and broke out to a 17-6 advantage with 5:06 remaining in the first half. Wonderview finally got on track by scoring the next eight points, but the rally was cut short at 17-14 when Simon was tagged with a technical foul at the 2:21 mark.
"I was talking to one of my players, and I guess the referee thought I was talking to him," Simon said. "So in a state championship game I'm yelling at my player and I get T'd up. Now I've got to sit the rest of the game. I didn't think that was a very fair technical."
Bay finished the first half with four free throws by Layne, giving the Lady Yellowjackets a 21-14 halftime lead.
Bay finished the season on a six-game winning streak, winning their last four by eight or fewer points.
"We've battled through a lot of ups and downs, but we've finally learned how to win close games," Watson said. "That was the only thing we were missing. That's a testament to them."
Layne scored only eight points, but the 5-6 sophomore handed out a game-high 4 assists and made 2 steals. She was 4 of 5 from the free-throw line.
Hartley led all players with nine rebounds, and she scored six of the Lady Yellowjackets' final 10 points.
Junior Shelby Reynolds led Wonderview with 11 points and eight rebounds. She scored nine of her points in the second half. Byers finished with 10 points and a game-high five steals.
Bay finished 12 of 31 from the floor, but it did hit 4 of 11 three-point attempts and 12 of 15 free-throw attempts.
MVP
Whitlee Layne
BAY
The sophomore guard scored 8 points and grabbed 3 rebounds in the Lady Yellowjackets’ victory over the Lady Daredevils. She made 2 of 10 shots, but her layup with 2:48 to play gave Bay a 32-29 lead. Layne also had 4 assists and 2 steals for the Lady Yellowjackets, who reached the state championship game after defeating Bradley, Nemo Vista, Acorn and Mount Vernon-Enola.
And ones
Bay won its first girls state basketball championship in its first appearance. The Lady Yellowjackets were the No. 3 seed from the 1A-2 East Conference. … Wonderview was making its fifth State Finals appearance. The Lady Daredevils, who finished 38-5, won the 1A title in 2012. … Wonderview junior forward Brooke Zimmerman, a sister of Arkansas Razorbacks women’s basketball sophomore Bailey Zimmerman, finished with 8 points, 4 rebounds and 1 assist.
— Jeremy Muck
Quotable
“Out of our nine losses, I felt we beat ourselves in five or six of them. We’d make a turnover or there would be a girl left unguarded. A bad pass.”
— Bay Coach Braden Watson
Sports on 03/10/2017