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By Denise Tucker (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
The Carthage Lady Tigers’ magical run through this year’s Pink and White Lady Classic came to an end as they fell to Republic 55-39 in the semifinals of the Pink Division on Wednesday afternoon.
Carthage, which was unseeded in the tournament, upset No. 6 Ozark in the first round and No. 3 Lebanon in the quarterfinals, but came up against an experienced Republic team that has won multiple titles in the tournament – the last coming in 2012.
“Our girls are playing really, really hard right now and we’re super proud of our effort today,” Carthage coach Scott Moore said. “The third game in three days with seven players in a rotation is probably why our shots didn’t fall. I’m actually pretty happy with our defensive effort, though, with the tempo we play, it’s going to be in the 50s. Offensively, we just didn’t get there. We got shots around the rim that didn’t fall, we missed some free throws, and some open 3s didn’t go down.
“We have never finished third in this tournament before. The way we played, the effort we’ll put out, let’s go win us a third place – one of those trophies to put down our trophy case – tomorrow.”
Republic coach Kris Flood knew his team had a battle on its hands against Carthage.
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“I’ve watched the first two days with them, and they’ve played really two good quality teams,” Flood said. “We’re starting to get to that point where it gets tougher each round and we’ve got several kids that have played several minutes on both groups. I think it’s a matter of focusing and just doing some little things, and maybe we were fortunate enough to do a couple more little things to get us over the top.”
Republic, which improved to 6-2, used a 7-0 run in the first quarter to create some space heading into the second. Carthage kept it close behind the 14 points from senior guard Kianna Yates and trailed 31-25 at halftime.
But Republic made the adjustments it needed to in the second half, namely against Yates.
“We made a little tweak with Yates at half,” Flood said. “We really tried to make the point of emphasis, as far as just maybe get the ball out of her hands a little quicker and make her give it up and put some pressure on those other kids and make them create and do something.”
A veteran team in this tournament, it has been a while since Republic has hoisted the championship trophy, but these Lady Tigers are ready for another shot.
“We come into it, and we just knew this was a big game,” said junior guard and Missouri State commit Kaemyn Bekemeier, who led all scorers with 24 points. “We knew that Carthage had some momentum, they beat some seeded teams, and so we knew that they were on fire; they were playing really good basketball right now. Ultimately, our goal is to win a championship. So, I think that tonight, we just wanted to go out there and play together and do what Flood said. We always tell ourselves to believe in ourselves and then believe in each other. I think that’s exactly what happened.”
(2) REPUBLIC 55, CARTHAGE 39
Pink and White Lady Classic
Pink Semifianal
CARTHAGE 16-9-7-7—39
REPUBLIC 23-8-12-12—55
CARTHAGE (5-5) – Lauren Choate 5, Maggie Boyd 5, Landry Cochran 2, Kianna Yates 20, Sophie Shannon 5, Daniela Marquez 2.
(2) REPUBLIC (6-2) – Misora Nambara 2, Lauren Chastain 12, Hope Schatz 4, Rilynn Finley 12, Kaemyn Bekemeier 24, Alaina Norman 1.
Up next: Pink championship – Republic vs. Kickapoo, 1 p.m., Thursday, O’Reilly Family Event Center; third place – Carthage vs. Cabot, Ark., 4 p.m., Thursday, OFEC
