By Pat Dailey (For OzarkSportsZone.com)
SPARTA — Pep talks that Emma Mullings received from Strafford assistant coach Nancy Ward and Emma Compton gave herself helped lift the Lady Indians to an epic comeback victory Tuesday.
Strafford kept alive its dreams for a seventh straight District championship by rallying to down Sparta 48-45 in a Class 3 District 11 semifinal.
The Lady Indians trailed 42-31 with 6:29 remaining, but promptly scored 17 unanswered points, while holding the Lady Trojans scoreless for more than six minutes.
“We weren’t having our best game and it was nerve wracking,” Compton said. “But at the same time I never lost hope for my team. I knew it was possible for us to do it. I feel like with the legacy our team has, we’re always confident.”
“I’m super proud of our kids and the resiliency they showed,” coach Dustin Larsen said. “The biggest thing was staying the course and never stop believing. They showed a lot of heart.”
Compton shook off a scoreless first half to score 13 of Strafford’s 27 points in the second half.
“I was getting down on myself because I wasn’t making shots I usually make,” she said of her first-half struggles. “Finally, I realized I was going to have to step up and go for those shots, even if I wasn’t as confident. Once I started hitting them, I got more confident.”
Sparta coach Josh Loveland felt great about his defenders’ ability to get in front of Compton in the first half, but credited her for finding gaps in the second half.
“She’s really good at getting to the lane and to the rim,” Loveland said. “We tried to stop her dribble penetration. Down the stretch, we didn’t do a good enough job of sliding over and cutting off that dribble penetration, like we did earlier in the game. Earlier, we did a great job against their dribble-penetration.”
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Sparta, which lost twice to Strafford in the regular season by margins of 32 and 19 points, was thinking upset after scoring the first 12 points of the fourth quarter to go up 42-31. The Lady Trojans’ 12-point outburst occurred in less than two minutes.
Shelby McMurry and Brynn Holt combined for 23 points to lead Sparta.
After trailing most of the night, Strafford took a 45-42 lead with 2:02 remaining on a 3-point goal by Mullings. It was the Lady Indians’ only 3-pointer in the second half and just their third of the game.
“I went over to coach Ward (during a break in action) and told her, ’Say something to me, give me some confidence,’” Mullings said. “She said some things to me and I told myself that I could do it. I had whole confidence. When I shot it, I thought, ’It’s going in.’”
“That’s what she had to do,” Strafford coach Dustin Larsen said. “She’s one of our shooters. She knows we have confidence in her. You may miss two, three of four. But (when) that next one comes around, she knows she has to be ready.”
“I had faith in her,” Compton said. “I knew we would hit one, at least. We struggled. My shots weren’t falling. My legs were tied and I air-balled a few shots. When we have an off night like that, we’ve got to find ways to get it done.”
Center Mattilyn Walker helped pick up the slack by scoring nine of her 13 points in the first half.
Sparta (19-8) ended its scoring drought on a Megan Brown 3-pointer with :08 left.
The Lady Trojans followed up by forcing a Strafford turnover. But they couldn’t get an open look on an attempt to tie and an off-balanced shot at the buzzer was well off the mark.
Strafford’s comeback for the ages with Compton at the controls only adds to the sterling legacy she has established. She’s generally regarded as one of the premier point guards southwest Missouri has seen in recent years.
She considered making her senior season the end of her playing days, after being disappointed not to receive recruiting correspondence from NCAA D-I or D-II schools. Eventually, another pep talk to herself led her to commit to National Christian Colleges Athletics Association member Baptist Bible College.
“For a while, I was kind of like, ‘I don’t even know if I want to play in college now,’” Compton said. “Honestly, it kind of sucked that I wasn’t getting interest from those colleges. But I realized that I love the game too much. I love BBC and the coach there has shown that he cares about me. I don’t care about the level of the play, just as long as I get to play.”
“Everyone is looking for their own thing. I guess it’s a thing of preference,” Larsen said of recruiting. “If I’m a college coach, I’m looking for competitors and winners. She’s a competitor. I think (BBC) got a heck of a find. She’s going to go there and have a successful career.”
In the other semifinal Tuesday, No. 1 seeded Skyline defeated Spokane 68-29.
No. 2 seed Strafford (21-5) moves on to meet Skyline (20-6) in Friday’s championship game at 6 p.m.
SPARTA (45) — B. Roller 2 1-2 6, A. Roller 1 0-0 3, Fulton 1 0-0 2, Youngmon 2 0-0 4, McMurry 6 0-1 12, Loveland 1 0-0 2, Holt 4 1-2 11, Brown 2 0-1 5.
STRAFFORD (48) — Compton 4 5-8 13, Jones 1 0-0 3, Frerking 3 0-0 6, Humble 3 3-4 9, Mullings 1 0-0 3, Walker 3 5-8 12, Chrismas 1 0-0 2.
Sparta 11 12 7 12 – 45
Strafford 6 15 10 17 – 48
3-point goals – Holt 2, B. Roller, A. Roller, Brown, Walker, Jones, Mullings.
