By Brennan Stebbins (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
Fordland rose to the occasion on Tuesday night.
The Eagles poured in 21 points in the second quarter and then pulled away in the game’s final minutes to top College Heights 57-41 in a Class 2 sectional at Carthage High School.
“We’ve played really well here of late,” Fordland coach Kevin McDaris said. “I think this is 15 out of 16 we’ve won. The girls are really locked in and they’ve bought into it. They’re playing great. We take it one game at a time and we’ll see where it goes.”
The Eagles (22-8) can now turn their focus to a Saturday quarterfinal game in Warrensburg. It’ll be a rematch against Norwood (22-6), which won the regular-season contest 45-40 in January.
CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS OF THE GAME
On Tuesday, Fordland used an explosive second quarter to take control.
The Eagles led by five after a quarter, then scored on their first eight possessions of the second quarter to pull ahead 32-13. Senior Mikah Suter scored the first two baskets of the run, junior Shelby Thomason had four points and junior Emma Trotter scored eight.
Fordland led 37-21 at the half. College Heights (17-12) didn’t go away quietly, though.
The Cougars had cut it to 10 by the end of the third, and trailed 43-33 with 5:33 remaining in the game.
But Fordland limited College Heights to one free throw over its next five possessions, senior Katlyn Fries made a 3-pointer, Thomason scored four in a row and then Suter’s basket with 2:32 left made it an 18-point game.
“The girls did a really good job of executing the game plan early, in the first half especially,” McDaris said. “We went through a little bit of a dry spell there in the third quarter but I thought we did a good job responding early fourth quarter, got the game back under control and extended our lead back out.”
“Unfortunately we struggled shooting from the floor tonight,” College Heights coach John Blankenship said. “We had some open looks, shots we normally knock down, and we just didn’t hit them tonight. Our defense in the first half was subpar. We gave up too many uncontested layups. We shifted to triangle-and-two in the second half and that slowed down their penetration, gave us some extra possessions and let us get back in the game a little bit.”
“When we combine our defense and our offense together, we’re pretty good,” he said. “But we struggled with both the first half, especially.”
The Eagles had three players score in double figures. Trotter led the way with 15 and sophomore MacKenzie Haskins and Thomason each scored 10. Mikah Suter scored eight, Fries had six, sophomore Britton Suter and freshman Loren Bojko each had three and sophomore Lillian Kindall scored two.
Sophomore Elizabeth Fanning led College Heights with 17, senior Addison Lawrence and junior Madelyn Colin each had six, senior Jayline Johnson scored four, sophomore Ava Lett and freshman Karly Dorris each had three and sophomore Kinley Marsh scored two.
