Blue Eye pulls ahead late in wild 42-38 sectional win at Greenfield

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By Brennan Stebbins (For OzarksSportsZone.com)

The Blue Eye girls looked like a team that had been there before on Wednesday night.

With their season on the line, the Bulldogs trailed by 10 points at halftime in front of a raucous crowd nearly two hours from home in a Class 2 sectional basketball game.

It didn’t appear to faze them. Blue Eye took its first lead with 6:29 left in the game and fended off Greenfield down the stretch for a wild 42-38 win.

“I told the girls in the postseason it doesn’t matter, win by two or 20,” Blue Eye coach Ken Elfrink said. “Every game is going to be a battle, every team you play from here on out is going to be tough.”

The Bulldogs (23-5), who advanced to the semifinals last season, will travel to Richland on Saturday for a quarterfinal game.

It took a double-digit comeback to get there. They tied the game three times in the first half but trailed by as many as 11 points after Greenfield went on a 13-2 run to lead 27-16 in the final minute of the second quarter. A late free throw by junior Avery Arnold brought them a little closer.

“I give Greenfield a ton of credit,” Elfrink said. “Their kids hit some big shots early. They attacked us, kind of did what I thought we were going to do and we didn’t make shots. Obviously that’s a big part of it early. I just told the kids to trust themselves. Trust themselves and their defense.”

“We’ve had some success the last two games really just running,” Greenfield coach Loganne Hickman said. “I’ve got a group of kids that honestly could be track stars if they wanted to be, and some of them are. We utilize that, we push on that. Watching film, we knew we had some lanes in transition so we kind of exposed that on them.”

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Blue Eye opened the third with an 11-1 run, though, tying the game at 28 on a driving layup by Arnold with 4:05 left in the quarter. Wildcats senior Morgan Wright answered with two free throws, then Blue Eye junior Riley Arnold made two of her own to tie it at 30.

The Bulldogs outscored Greenfield 13-4 in the quarter but still trailed by a point when it was over thanks to a free throw by Wildcats sophomore Trista Torres.

Junior Kyla Warren tied it at 31 with a free throw in the first minute of the fourth, and then things started to snowball for Greenfield.

Torres, one of the team’s main ball handlers, fouled out a minute into the fourth. Thirty seconds later sophomore Marlie Wright, another starter, also earned her fifth foul on a charge. She was whistled for a technical foul before she got to the bench and that sent Riley Arnold to the line.

She made both shots, and Blue Eye led 33-31 with 6:29 remaining.

Blue Eye led by as many as three – after Greenfield’s Morgan Wright fouled out – before the Wildcats tied it at 36 with 3:22 remaining after senior Ashley Daniel grabbed an offensive rebound and scored. But Riley Arnold answered with a three pointer.

She made two free throws at the 2:06 mark to make it 41-38 after Greenfield’s Tatum Torres had scored two. She fouled out with about a minute left.

“I had our forward bringing the ball up the floor, first game all year,” Hickman said. “First game probably since her seventh grade year she’s brought the ball up the floor.”

Wright was the team’s other primary ball handler before fouling out.

The Bulldogs went to the line seven times in the final minute with a chance to make it a two-possession game but missed all seven. Junior Gracyn Fairchild made the eighth with 12 seconds on the clock.

“Unfortunately for them they got kids in foul trouble and obviously we did too,” Elfrink said. “That’s the first time Riley’s fouled out all year for me. This time of year expectations are high and kids want to continue to play. I told them in the locker room to trust themselves and their teammates. I give Greenfield a ton of credit. They’re scrappy, they play hard, they’re physical with their home crowd. Their coach did an outstanding job. They executed well and defensively they did a really good job.”

Riley Arnold led Blue Eye with 19 points after scoring just three in the first half. Warren added nine points. Greenfield (21-7) was led by Marlie Wright’s 12 points and Tatum Torres added nine.

“Our emotions got the best of us for a little bit,” Elfrink said. “We had some silly mistakes and silly decisions. Hopefully we can learn from it going forward. It doesn’t matter, this time of year there’s always a game or two that it’s like hey, we probably shouldn’t won. This may be one of those games. I felt like Greenfield outplayed us.”

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