By Brennan Stebbins (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
Taaron Drake and Grace Irwin made a pair of crucial three pointers in the final minutes and the Diamond girls basketball team hung on late for a 42-41 victory against Greenfield on Saturday night in the 65th Annual Golden City Basketball Tournament championship game.
Drake’s basket came with 3:28 remaining after Greenfield had cut the Diamond lead to 36-33, and Irwin scored at the 1:45 mark after Greenfield cut it to 39-37.
But Irwin’s three points were the last of the night for the Wildcats, who relied on their defense the rest of the way.
Diamond (13-2) forced Greenfield (14-4) into two misses and a turnover in the final two minutes, and also sent Greenfield to the free throw line three times, where the other Wildcats made 4-of-6 attempts.
“Big shots,” Diamond coach Marty Atnip said of the three pointers. “Big momentum. Especially when they were coming back, we kind of seized the momentum back a little bit, made those big shots during crunch time. Even though they made a run, we hit the shots we needed to to win the game and got defensive rebounds and key stops at the end of the game. That was the difference in the game.”
Saturday was a rematch between two state-ranked teams after Diamond won 52-40 in the second game of the year for both schools. Diamond entered the weekend ranked sixth in Class 3, while Greenfield came in ranked fourth in Class 2.
In the first half, it was all Diamond.
Greenfield scored just six points in the first quarter and only one point in the first five-plus minutes of the second while Diamond jumped out to a 23-7 lead.
Diamond led by 15 points with six minutes left in the third quarter after freshman Grace Frazier scored to make it 27-12. Greenfield mounted an 11-0 run later in the third to get back in the game, and then kept chipping away in the fourth quarter.
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It was 35-26 before Greenfield sophomore Marlie Wright made a three pointer with 6:55 left in the game. Then, after a Diamond free throw, Greenfield senior Morgan Wright made a three pointer to make it a four-point game.
After a Diamond turnover, Greenfield’s Marlie Wright made a free throw to make it 36-33 with 5:11 left.
That’s when Drake, a freshman, made her three pointer to extend it to six points.
The final two minutes included three-straight Diamond turnovers and two missed free throws – both on 1-and-1 opportunities – and Greenfield had the ball with 7.1 seconds remaining.
Marlie Wright got off a good shot from six feet out at the buzzer but the ball bounced off the rim.
“We’re awful young, obviously starting three freshman, and it’s one of those things that’s a learning experience,” said Atnip. “When you’re up you have to learn how to absorb what the situation is and we knew Greenfield was going to make a run, they’re too good of a team to lay down and die. We knew they were going to make a big run or try to make a run and we just had to withstand it. Obviously we got in some foul trouble, got a girl hurt a little bit. The mark of a good team is you step up during crunch time and I felt like in crunch time when we really needed it they did what we needed to do to win a big ballgame against a state-ranked team like Greenfield.”
Drake scored a team-high 15 points and was named the tournament MVP afterwards. Freshman Grace Frazier scored 12 points before fouling out in the fourth quarter.
“Obviously Taaron Drake had a huge week this week, the tournament MVP,” Atnip said. “She had a great game but we’re about team. We try to win and lose as a team and we won as a team tonight.”
Greenfield’s Morgan Wright scored 15 points, all in the second half. Marlie Wright added 13.
All-tournament team
MVP: Taaron Drake, Diamond
1st: Marlie Wright, Greenfield
1st: Nicole Hagerman, Bronaugh
1st: Alexis Durman, Jasper
1st: Kyndall Scott, Golden City
1st: Trista Torres, Greenfield
2nd: Grace Frazier, Diamond
2nd: Baylee Jeffries, Jasper
2nd: Brooke Beerly, Golden City
2nd: Tatum Torres, Greenfield
2nd: Gracie Bott, Liberal
