By Matt Turer — mturer@ky3.com
@MattTurer
Sparta, Mo. — A new coach. A new-look team. A third-straight district title. The run continued for Gainesville Friday night in Sparta.
The Bulldogs outscored Hartville by a combined 21-10 in the first and third quarters and rode that separation to a 42-37 final and the Class 2 District 4 championship.
“Just awesome,” Gainesville head coach Morris Jenkins said. “I’ve been on both sides of that. I’ve been in Hartville’s locker room. I’ve been fortunate enough to be where we’re at tonight, and this one feels just as good as any of them. Really proud of our team and the way they battled and kept poised and made some big shots down the stretch.”
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Hartville (19-10) flipped a 9-5 first-quarter deficit into a 20-18 halftime lead after a flurry of offense in the second quarter. The Eagles connected on three three-pointers in the second and built a 20-14 lead late in the quarter before Gainesville (27-1) closed on a 4-0 run.
Gainesville junior Annie Noah scored scored six of her game-high 19 points in the second quarter when no other Bulldog scored more than two points.
“She kept working,” Jenkins said. “I wasn’t able to give her a break tonight. She battled for 32 minutes with them really pushing on her a lot. She’s just a great team player.”
Hartville’s six-point first-half lead turned into a five-point deficit by the end of the third. The Eagles connected on three 3s in the second quarter but that offense went stagnant again in the third.
“We had chances to answer back and didn’t do it,” Hartville head coach Mike Percival said. :You get in these playoff games and everything is almost doubled. It might be a three but it’s worth six, and all the momentum swings and we couldn’t capitalize. We had some shots, just couldn’t get them to go down.”
Sadie Chisum finished with 16 points for Hartville. No other Eagle reached double figures.
Momentum seemed to swing for good when Gainesville senior Shelby Smith connected from deep with 4:43 to play, putting the Bulldogs up 37-31.
“I was off all night but then I came in and made that three. I didn’t think it was going in but when it did it felt awesome and pumped the whole team up,” Smith said.
“That was a huge momentum swing,” Percival said of Smith’s 3. “Shelby is a really good shooter. She hasn’t had a great season shooting the ball like she’d want to, but she’s hit some key 3s. That really sparked us and gave us more bounce in our step down the stretch.”
Gainesville has held five of its last six opponents to either 35 or 37 total points and has held eight opponents to 37 points or fewer during its current 10-game win streak.
Gainesville’s last and only loss came against Thayer on Jan. 26, 44-43. The Bulldogs won’t get a quarterfinal rematch with Thayer after the Bobcats fell to Neelyville in the Class 2 District 3 final.
“I wish we would’ve had another chance [at Thayer],” Noah said. “What happens happens I guess, but now we’re ready to play Neelyville. They’re going to be a good team, but our goal is to go to state, so I’m feeling pretty good right now.”
FINAL: Gainesville 42, Hartville 37
Hartville 5 15 5 12- 37
Gainesville 9 9 12 12- 42
Hartville- Sadie Chisum 16, Cheyanne Mullenix 8, Skylar Divine 8, Emily Chisum 2, Grace Culver 2, Mallory Hardcastle 1
Gainesville- Annie Noah 19, Michia Jenkins 12, Destiny Scott 3, Aspyn Britt 3, Shelby Smith 3, Shai Meek 2
