By Denise Tucker (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
The Nixa Lady Eagles jumped on the Greenwood, Ark., Lady Bulldogs right out of the gate in the Pink Division Championship game, but were not able to sustain it in a 66-51 loss Friday evening at Drury’s O’Reilly Family Event Center.
Nixa, the No. 3 seed in the tournament and No. 5 ranked team in Class 6, opened the game with a 7-0 run and held the top-seeded Lady Bulldogs scoreless until the 2:30 mark of the first quarter when Tulsa University signee Mady Cartwright hit 1 of 2 free throws. The two teams traded baskets and once Greenwood pulled with 9-7, it peeled off six straight points to finish the quarter on an 8-0 run for an 11-9 lead.
“It took a little while (to get going),” Greenwood coach Clay Reeves said of his Arkansas Class 5A defending state champions. “We walked; probably the excitement of playing in the finals and all that. But these girls have played for state championships before and they’d been in big games before. But it just happened; they just stayed positive and kept playing hard and things eventually turned around.”
Nixa’s Norah Clark, a Tennessee-Martin signee, hit a pull-up jumper to open the scoring in the second quarter to tie the game at 11. A 3-pointer by Anna Trusty helped Greenwood keep Nixa at arm’s length as the Lady Bulldogs outscored the Lady Eagles 21-13 in the quarter for a 10-point (32-22) halftime lead.
“They’re a very, very good basketball team; two very good basketball teams played tonight,” Nixa coach Jennifer Perryman said. “One was coached a lot better than the other one, and I would say that that was Greenwood. I think he did a phenomenal job with them.
“We weren’t very physical tonight, and our turnovers have been our Achilles’ heel. So, we’ve got to change that. It’s something we have to change or it’s going to continue to creep up on us.”
The Lady Eagles also were denied the opportunity to win a title in the Pink and White Lady Classic the same year the Nixa boys captured the Blue Division Championship in the Blue and Gold Tournament.
And a lot of that had to do with Greenwood’s ability to get deflections and steals and turn those into points.
“That’s what we try to work hardest on is our defense and getting steals where we can get easier baskets,” Reeves said. “The kids are determined to play good defense and play hard, and so I give all the credit to them.”
Arkansas high schools play with a shot clock, so in addition to the new environment, the Lady Bulldogs also had to adjust to different rules.
“We didn’t even talk about it or anything except that we thought some teams would try to be a little more patient,” Reeves said. “Where in Arkansas, you can’t be too patient because of the clock. But we tried to pressure the ball to keep that from happening.”
And Greenwood’s one-two punch of Cartwright and junior Anna Trusty also made the night difficult for Nixa. Trusty led all scorers with 23 points and Cartwright added 18.
“We usually try to push the ball as much as we can,” Cartwright said. “If not, then we’ll mainly play motion. We don’t really do many offenses, so we just try to stick to what we do.”
Greenwood continued to add to its lead in the second half, but Nixa kept applying pressure to try and create opportunities on the offensive end.
“That’s one thing about our kids, they’re not going to back down and they’re not going to go anywhere,” Perryman said. “That’s what has made them successful so far. We’ve got to just get a little bit more consistent. And I think this was a great opportunity for our younger kids to be in this game, so early on and at a young age. Because I think, number one, it’s a good experience for them. And number two, it puts that hunger in them for next year.”
This year was the Pink and White Lady Classic debut for the Greenwood, Ark., Lady Bulldogs, and they were not disappointed.
“It is my first trip,” Reeves said. “A few teams from Arkansas told me about it over the years and how good it was and how much they love girls’ basketball up here, and they were exactly right. It’s first-class. They love girls’ basketball up here and we enjoyed every second of it and hope we get to come back.”
“We had a lot of fun,” Cartwright said. “Our host, Miss Helen, she was the best. She was excited for us, and it was just a good environment. We usually don’t have this many people at our games, so it was good to have some fans out here, even if it wasn’t for us.”
#1 GREENWOOD, ARK. 66, #3 NIXA 51
Pink and White Lady Classic
Pink Division Championship
At O’Reilly Family Event Center
NIXA 9-13-16-13—51
GREENWOOD, ARK. 11-21-22-12—66
NIXA (10-2) – Lilly Mahy 11, Jacy Bray 7, Allison Jones 10, Norah Clark 16, Sadie Conway 2, Karis Ferguson 1, Brooke Teter 4.
GREENWOOD, ARK. (13-2) – Mady Cartwright 18, Anna Trusty 23, Brooklyn Woolsey 3, Carley Sexton 3, Izzy Smith 10, Kylah Pearcy 9.
