By Scott Vanscoy (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
The 37th Annual Fair Grove Girls’ Basketball Invitational Tournament saw the host team win the championship for the first time since 2015. Fair Grove was led by junior Alana Findley’s 31 points en route to the 51-47 win over the Clever Lady Jays.
Findley was unaware that she was close to the 1,000 point career mark, but her coach and parents knew that she was within reach of it.
“She had no idea,” said Fair Grove coach Jenny Talbert. “I knew going in, and I’d talked to her parents about it, told them that she needed 22 to get to 1,000. I hadn’t told her because I knew that she wouldn’t really care. It’s well deserved, no surprise, we know she’s totally capable of that, but the greatest thing about her is that she only wants to win. Whatever it takes to win, that’s what she’s going to do.”
The first two quarters of the game were played sloppily, with neither team taking control. Turnovers, missed shots, and fouls added up to just a 21-16 Clever lead at the half. At halftime, Talbert challenged her girls to take control of the game.
“We really challenged the girls at halftime to be more aggressive, attack the gaps, and not be scared to make some passes,” said Talbert. “We did a much better job in the second half. Alana started attacking the basket more; I think it opened it up for everybody else. Our guards settled down and we were able to finally take a lead and hold onto a lead.”
CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS OF THE GAME
Trailing 31-24, Fair Grove went on a 9-0 run to end the third quarter, giving them a narrow 33-31 lead. Fair Grove never gave up the lead in the fourth quarter but Clever made several runs at them. When Findley picked up her fourth foul and went to the bench with 4:30 to go in the game, Clever saw their chance. A free throw and a made bucket put the game at 42-41.
Fair Grove made free throws down the stretch, giving Findley time to refocus and re-enter the game at the 2:15 mark.
“I did not want to come out with that fourth foul—I wanted to tell coach ‘come on, put me in, I’m ready to go’,” said Findley. “It was very hard sitting on the bench watching my team but the comeback was awesome—I loved getting to cheer for them.”
With one minute left to go in the game, Fair Grove held a precarious 4 point lead, 49-45. The Eagles dribbled out the clock forcing Clever to foul. Fair Grove senior Taylor Bell put in two free throws, while Clever scored a bucket in the final seconds of the game, making the final score 51-47.
“We knew it was going to be a battle, Clever is a really good team,” said Talbert. “Harper Little is one of the best defenders we will probably ever face, and so we knew we were going to have to come ready to play. And we really didn’t. We started off pretty slow, really struggled; we were back on our heels. In the fourth quarter, we made our free throws. I had some juniors and Taylor Bell, a senior, step up and hit some key free throws down the stretch. That’s just them being older, being juniors and seniors now. This win is huge. We were seeded first and we really felt like we wanted to let people know that they made the right decision, that we should be No. 1. This is a great start for our season, we are really excited.”
Fair Grove 9 7 17 18 -51
Clever 5 16 10 16 -47
Fair Grove—Alana Findley-31, Cydney Fullerton-7, Harley Maxwell-6, Taylor Bell-4, Maddie Clark-3
Clever—Harper Little-22, Abi Menzies-16, Allie Clevenger-6, Tessa Newman-3
