By Matt Turer — mturer@ky3.com
@MattTurer
Rogersville and Lebanon are set to meet in Friday’s Fair Grove tournament finals after the two came away with a pair of upsets on Thursday over state-ranked opponents.
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Rogersville explodes in fourth quarter to upset West Plains
After three quarters of slow-paced half-court offense, Rogersville and West Plains took off for 38 combined fourth-quarter points in their semifinal matchup in this week’s Fair Grove tournament in a game that would go to the Wildcats, 44-40.
Sophomore guard Jordyn Gault carried Rogersville (4-0) offensively, scoring 15 of her 22 points in the fourth quarter and finishing the game a perfect 9-9 from the free-throw line.
Rogersville’s win came three days after the Wildcats upset Fair Grove with a three-point barrage in the game’s final minutes, all part of an impressive stretch of basketball being done without two of the team’s starters as Kayla McAllister and Sarah Jordan were again out with injuries.
“We basically played with our best player for four minutes in the first game of the year before she went down with an injury, and our girls have responded to that real good,” Rogersville head coach Denny McHenry said.
“This was one of those games where I said if we can keep the tempo in our favor, we can stay in the game and have a chance. But if the tempo got out of our favor, we could get beat by 30. But they answered the call.”
Rogersville’s half-court offense slowed down top-seeded West Plains (1-1)—a team sitting at No. 7 in the OzarksSportsZone.com power rankings—to a crawl over the game’s first three quarters. West Plains led 7-6 through one quarter and 17-15 at the half.
Rogersville opened the second half on a 6-0 run, going up 21-17 before West Plains responded with a 6-0 run of its own, reclaiming a 23-21 lead. The two would enter the fourth quarter in a 23-23 draw before Gault and West Plains senior Payton Richards dualed to the finish.
Richards finished with eight fourth-quarter points and 15 points for the game.
Free-throw shooting was key for Rogersville. The Wildcats were 15-15 from the line as a team. West Plains finished 6-11.
“That’s a great win,” McHenry said. “But you’re only as good as your last game. It’s a quick turnaround [to Friday]. Enjoy it, but when we wake up in the morning, we go back to work and try to win a championship. If you don’t play well Friday, people will say we got lucky.”
This was just the first of what McHenry said could be four matchups between the two teams this season.
“The bottom line is we’re not pulling out all the tricks for this game,” McHenry said. “I convinced [the girls] that we’re going to see [West Plains] tonight. We’re going to see them right after Christmas. And then we’re going to see them in the district championship. We might see them four times if we get them in the Blue and White tournament. And that’s a good thing.”
Rogersville 44, West Plains 40
Rogersville 6 9 8 21 – 44
West Plains 7 10 6 17 – 40
Rogersville – Jordyn Gault 22, Maci McHenry 9, Hailey Brown 5, Sarah Posey 4, Taylor Overstreet 4
West Plains – Peyton Richards 15, Elle Williams 9, Hailey Meeks 6, Kendra Davidson 4, Lily Harris 4, Kasey Bonhorn 2
Lebanon surges past talented Clever team
If there was any question about what this tournament means for this Lebanon team, Yellowjackets head coach Brendan Kelley put it to rest after his team’s 52-46 win over Clever in Thursday’s semifinals.
“I think this win is huge,” Kelley said. “We were embarrassed by Strafford on our home court before Thanksgiving. Ever since that happened, I challenged our players that they have to make a statement. A win like this goes a long way towards wiping out what happened in Strafford and moving us forward to where we need to go.”
Kelsey Winfrey scored eight of her game-high 24 points in a fast-paced and frantic first quarter, hitting two threes but finding her Yellowjackets (2-1) trailing Clever (1-1), 18-16.
Clever carried that lead into halftime after each team managed just six points in the second quarter, in part because of a plethora of turnovers committed by both teams as the frantic pace turned into a sloppy one.
“I wanted to run the floor,” Kelley said. “The problem was, we were forcing things that weren’t there. We had way too many turnovers. I thought we did a better job of making decisions in the second half.”
Lebanon cleaned up its offense in the second half, outscoring Clever 30-21. Winfrey scored 17 of those second-half points.
Lebanon 52, Clever 46
Clever 18 6 9 13 – 46
Lebanon 16 6 14 16 – 52
Lebanon – Kelsey Winfrey 24, Gracie Calhoun 12, Faith Alwardt 6, Jenna Glendenning 4, Cori Johnson 4, Kamryn Mack 2
Clever – Allie Clevenger 14, Harper Little 11, Abi Menzies 10, Emily Mendenhall 6, Hannah Maples 2, Madison Newman 2, Tessa Newman 1
