By Denise Tucker (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
SPARTA – The Fair Grove Lady Eagles were a team on a mission Saturday night as they captured their first district championship in 10 years with a 66-56 win over Mid-Lakes Conference rival Strafford in the Class 3 District 11 Tournament at Sparta High School.
Not only did the Lady Eagles break their district championship drought by taking home their first title since 2013, they also broke several other streaks along the way to get to this point.
“So, we had a 10-year drought against (Strafford), too, last week when we beat them (49-33 on Feb. 16),” Fair Grove coach Jenny Talbert said. “We’ve been kind of talking all season about breaking streaks. We beat Skyline for the first time in four years at their tournament; we beat Strafford for the first time in 10 years; haven’t had a district title in 10 years… So, we’ve been talking about these different streaks we’ve got a break, so it’s huge.
“These girls have been locked in for the last month of getting to this game and then winning it – not just being happy with getting here. So, I’m just really proud of them.”
The teams played a typical first quarter for the MLC foes with the top-seeded Lady Eagles taking a 15-12 lead.
Sophomore reserve Abbey Green hit a basket on a high-low pass from Allison Findley to open the second quarter and then scored back-to-back buckets that would push Fair Grove’s lead to 23-17 midway through the quarter. The Lady Eagles were able to limit Strafford’s scoring opportunities and continued to build their lead to 10 points (31-21) heading into halftime.
“Abbey is super athletic,” Talbert said. “We always call her the ‘Energizer Bunny’ because when she gets into a game, she’s always around the ball, she’s keeping a possession alive, she’s making the shots, she’s running the floor. And she had some huge shots for us and played some excellent defense.”
And she had some help on defense, as the Lady Eagles held Strafford’s all-state guard Laney Humble to just four points on the night.
“We know Laney is a great player,” Talbert said. “So, Hannah Maxwell guarded her most of the game and she and Abbey Green, kind of by committee, guarded her. And then Lauren Jones had a great night shooting. But we just knew that if we stuck together as a unit, five people guarding, we could really have a shot. We just kept focusing on getting rebounds, getting stops, and were able to string those stops together.
“I felt like we contested their shots really well, and that was kind of our focus – contain their dribble drives because they’re quick – and then contest the 3s, but always rebound. So, I was just really proud. They stuck to the game plan and did awesome.”
And a big key to that long-awaited district title was the Lady Eagles’ lone senior – Kameron Green. The 6-foot center led Fair Grove with 19 points and 8 rebounds. Not only was she happy to take home a championship, but the journey to get there was extra special.
“First one in 10 years; it’s been a long time,” Green said. “We knew what was ultimately, probably going to happen; we trained for it in practice. We asked people for inspiration and all of the support was coming in from the community. We just used all of that as motivation and inspiration to come in here and do what we needed to do to get the job done.
“Our coach reached out to some people that are the last class to graduate, and fans from Fair Grove, to beat Strafford about 10 years ago. They brought in some essays for us to write that we read and used as inspiration and that just fueled us and triggered some emotions inside and got us ready for this game.”
The title may have also softened the blow Fair Grove’s volleyball team took this season with its only two losses coming to Strafford, including its season-ending loss.
“Definitely. We did talk about (how) they ended our volleyball season and we weren’t going to let that happen again,” Green said. “And in basketball, we know what we’re capable of. We were excited. We wanted to get back here and we wanted to beat them.”
Strafford coach Dustin Larsen said that Fair Grove was the better team Saturday night.
“Hats off to Fair Grove; well deserved,” Larsen said. “They were tremendous today. They came out really physical and played a good basketball game. They were the better team today.
“I think we could have had a little better patience offensively today. We allowed our inexperience to kind of play into that and shot some quick shots. We’ve got to continue to grow and get better. Our kids will learn from it. We’ve got to walk out of here tall and be proud of who we are and understand this game doesn’t define them.
“You’ve got two ways to face it; you can get up tomorrow and want to become a better person and get better as a player, or you can make excuses. But they were just better today and they’re a conference school, so we’ll be rooting for them.”
The Lady Indians, who finished the season 20-9, lose Humble, who has committed to Baptist Bible College, and Sophia Frerking, who plans to play volleyball at the next level.
Fair Grove also fields a young roster that includes one senior, three juniors and six sophomores.
“To get this experience for those younger kids, this is huge,” Talbert said. “Just that feeling of winning in a championship setting means so much going forward. And for Kameron to get it her senior year, it means the world to me because she has worked so hard for four years, and to be in this position where she knocked down some big free throws, it’s just awesome that it kind of went on her shoulders there at the end.”
Next on the breaking streaks tour for Fair Grove will be a matchup with Diamond (22-5), a 54-53 District 10 winner over Lamar, in the sectional round Tuesday night at Carthage High School.
“We’ve just got to keep going, we can’t be satisfied,” Talbert said. “A lot of teams will win a district, but they can’t let that be the pinnacle of their season. This isn’t our ultimate goal. Our ultimate goal is to win the state title. So, we’ve got to keep practicing, keep working hard and focus on that next opponent.”
NO. 1 FAIR GROVE 66, NO. 2 STRAFFORD 56
Class 3 District 11 Championship
STRAFFORD 12-9-14-21—56
FAIR GROVE 15-16-15-20—66
STRAFFORD (20-9) – Elsie Larsen 11, Brooklyn Adney 5, Lauren Jones 30, Laney Humble 4, Zoe Allison 4, Kennedy Clark 2.
FAIR GROVE (24-4) – Brooke Daniels 5, Camdyn Hart 5, Kameron Green 19, Hannah Maxwell 2, Ashton Bell 16, Emma Padgett 10, Abbey Green 10.
Up next: Class 3 Sectional – Fair Grove vs. Diamond, 7:45 p.m., Tuesday, Feb. 28 at Carthage High School
