By Brennan Stebbins (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
A pair of big runs by Aurora’s girls basketball team–one to take the lead early, and another to hang on to it late–proved the difference on Monday night.
The Lady Houns pulled ahead of visiting Logan-Rogersville with a 20-5 run in the first half, and then after the visitors got within three points in the fourth quarter, Aurora finished them off by outscoring the Wildcats 13-2 to finish the game.
The end result: a 54-40 sectional win for Aurora, and now the program’s first quarterfinal appearance since 2008.
“They’ve had two quarterfinal appearances in the history of the program and never had a final four so it’s not uncharted waters but definitely tough ground to get to,” Aurora coach Jason Cole said. “We’re definitely relishing that part of it.”
Aurora, now 24-4, will host Owensville (21-7) on Friday night with a trip to the Class 4 semifinals on the line.
The Lady Houns took a few minutes to fire on all cylinders Monday night in their third matchup this season against the Wildcats. Rogersville scored the first eight points of the game, but then Aurora junior Kylee Cole hit a 3-pointer and junior Alyssa Burch grabbed two offensive rebounds and scored both times.
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Those baskets started a 20-5 run that pushed Aurora to a 20-13 lead midway through the second quarter. And the advantage grew to 28-20 when Cole nailed a buzzer beater from half court to end the first half.
The Wildcats (21-8) turned it over 12 times in the first two quarters, with Aurora’s pressing defense coming up with several steals. The Lady Houns, in fact, held Rogersville scoreless for nearly six minutes after the Wildcats led 13-11.
“I felt like our pressure was good there,” Cole said. “We were able to turn them over at times when we needed to and I felt like rebounding was a strength for us. We knew we had to try to battle and make sure we didn’t give up any more second or third opportunities than we did. A team that has several scorers like that, you’ve got to make sure you don’t give them extra opportunities.”
“Keys to the game,” Rogersville coach Cory Watts said. “We wrote that on the board before we walked out. If we don’t turn it over I thought we would win by double digits. But unfortunately we turned it over several times and that was the difference in the game, that and rebounding. We didn’t rebound very well and they did. Hats off to them.”
“They’re a really good team,” Watts said. “They don’t let you do what you want to do. We had an early lead but we knew they would come back here at home. Wild crowd, the momentum got behind them and it was tough to come back after that.”
Aurora forced nine more turnovers in the second half and withstood every surge from the Wildcats. The visitors pulled within four points early in the third, and then Aurora pushed it back to nine.
Rogersville’s best shot came early in the fourth, after Millie MacPherson scored with three seconds left in the third to make it a 41-35 game–and then made a 3-pointer a few seconds into the final period to make it a one-possession game.
But then Rogersville turned it over its next two possessions and the Lady Houns started their 13-2 run with a 3-pointer by junior Makena Hall.
“We knew Rogersville was a talented group,” Cole said. “We had seen lots of film on them and it was the third time we’ve faced them. We knew they definitely would and were capable of making surges and we had to work to withstand those.”
“We’ve got a lot of resiliency in what we do with our kids,” he said. “That’s something we build upon as the year goes on. We’ve played a lot of quality teams this year and Rogersville obviously being one of them. We knew it was going to be a battle going on. Hats off to them, they competed like we expected; they came out and gave us their best.”
Aurora’s Cole led all scorers with 23 points and made four 3-pointers and nine free throws. Hall scored 11, Burch scored 9, Jaelyn Ernest scored 5, Brooke Blevins scored 4 and Nadia Davis scored 2.
For Rogersville, MacPherson scored 13, Hailey Buckman and Reagan Rasmussen each scored 12 and Eden Kibby scored 3.
