By Brennan Stebbins (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
In a game that saw both teams combine for 50 free throw attempts, the New Heights Christian girls basketball team only made five shots from the charity stripe––and yet the Cougars kept Lighthouse at arm’s length all afternoon en route to a 49-43 win in the 42nd Annual Warrior Classic championship on Saturday at McAuley High School.
“Our defense has been pretty good at times,” New Heights coach John Blankenship said. “We played really good defense in the first half. We didn’t shoot well offensively, we didn’t knock down free throws, so to beat a good team like that when we’re not shooting well from the free throw line or the floor says a lot about your defense. We focused a lot on that in practice and the kids know their rotations and they did a pretty good job with it.”
The Cougars, 16-5, won their sixth straight on Saturday––the first win by single digits in that stretch. They did it despite shooting 5 for 24 at the free throw line, but New Heights never trailed against the Chargers.
A 3-pointer in the final seconds of the first quarter from Allie Stout gave New Heights a 15-9 lead. The Cougars hiked their lead to double digits in the second frame––it was 27-17 after another triple by Stout––and the team took a 33-23 lead into the half following a late layup by Jesalin Bever.
Lighthouse, meanwhile, played New Heights evenly for the final three quarters. It was a six-minute scoring drought to open the game that hampered the Chargers.
“I thought our team fought their guts out but when you have only five players you play with right now––we’ve got one that broke a foot and a couple that were sick––so I was extremely proud of them,” Lighthouse coach Jen Crowley said. “I thought we fought, fought, fought. Honestly the only thing I can say is if we would have made our baskets at the beginning of the game… That’s the thing I keep going back to.”
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Lighthouse stayed within striking distance in the second half. New Heights maintained a lead of between 8 and 12 points in the third quarter, but two free throws by Lighthouse’s Adalyn Grundy made it a 40-33 game in the first minute of the fourth.
A little over a minute later, Grundy scored on a putback to cut the deficit to 5 points. New Heights again pushed the lead to 10, and held a 47-37 lead with 1:37 left to play after Karly Dorris scored on a layup. But then Sarah Jones, Gabriella Oglesby and Jocie Boyd scored successive baskets for Lighthouse to make it 47-43 with 11 seconds on the clock.
The Cougars got some relief at the free throw line, where Bever made two shots in the final seconds to help seal it.
“We had some breakdowns in the second half and gave them some easy layups,” Blankenship said. “Shot poorly from the free throw line, and that almost came back to bite us in the end. Had a lot of foul trouble. All three of my post players fouled out. We had kids step in there and did a good job down the stretch holding them down at the end so I was really proud of my kids.”
“We’re on a good run right now,” he said. “We’re playing really, really well, playing good as a team. We’re moving the ball well, our scoring’s been really balanced. That makes it really hard to defend when you’ve got more than one person to worry about on defense.”
Ava Lett led New Heights with 11 points and Bever added 10. Stout totaled 9, Dorris had 7, Kinley Marsh scored 6, Libby Fanning scored 4 and Ella Nelson added 2.
For Lighthouse (10-6), Aszriana Laddimore scored 15, Grundy scored 12, Oglesby scored 6, Sarah Jones scored 5 and Boyd scored 3.
“They’re hungry for another district championship,” Blankenship said. “We got put in a tough district with Miller and Ash Grove. They’re motivated, they want to do well. We’ve got two more conference games this next week which will keep them motivated and we’ll close out our season with one district opponent and then Sarcoxie which is a very good team. We’re going to have to stay on top of things, keep working hard, stay disciplined, keep doing what we’ve been doing to give ourselves a chance to win.”
“We’re on the swing up,” Crowley said. “We had some really rough games, we had two or three where we had lots of turnovers, no rebounding and very stagnant play. Now we’re swinging up. I think they know what kind of team they are now and I’m really excited to see where it takes us. We have a state tournament this week and I think this gives us a lot of confidence to go forward.”
