The game between Worth County and North Harrison’s girls was marred by the loss of Anna Gladstone, who rolled her ankle against Northeast Nodaway the night before and sat out for the week. But the game still lived up to its billing between the top two seeds of District 14. They could play another one just like it, although Albany, Mercer, and East Harrison will have something to say about it.
After dropping the HDC semifinal game to Mercer, North Harrison’s girls figured out they could pick it up defensively whenever the shots didn’t fall and totally dismantled a potent Grundy County squad to take third place. That carried over into the Worth County game, but Worth County was up to the challenge as well. The result was a game that started off in a scoreless standoff for the first four minutes as neither team could do anything against each other’s defenses.
Finally, Jill Hardy broke the ice with 3:48 left with a 3-pointer, but that opened the floodgates for North Harrison after Emma Craig got loose on the boards. As Worth County couldn’t get anything going offensively, the Shamrocks continued to score as Brandy Rivet hit Payton Craig for a drive, Craig went backdoor and got a pass from Addie Slaughter, and Olivia Babinski hit from the right wing off a pass from Slaughter to make it 8-3 with 24 seconds.
That would have been a manageable deficit going into the second, but then a critical sequence left Worth County playing catchup the rest of the game. Addie Slaughter tipped an errant pass, Mason Cracraft got a steal and got it to Payton Craig, and Payton went coast to coast, where she drew a foul. She made one free throw, missed the second with 3.9 seconds left, but then Addie Slaughter scooped up a loose carom after a scramble and dropped it in as time expired to make it 11-3.
That play threatened to put Worth County on the ropes. After another two scoreless minutes to start the second, Payton Craig got it into Emma Craig with 5:55 left. Regan Allee countered with a drive for Worth County, but Payton Craig wove her way through four different gold shirts to make it 15-5. She was the best player on the court that night, getting 19 points; she was always a step faster than even a strong defensive team like Worth County, at least on Tuesday night.
But then Jessi Badell, who broke North Harrison’s hearts last year with her putback that gave Worth County a winning season and sent them into the finals against Mercer in districts, got going for the Tigers, getting an inside shot off a pass from Kristin New. Payton Craig countered with a free throw, but then Jenna Smith got a steal and Kristin New missed a layup try. But Badell was there for the putback and the Tigers were breathing again.
Payton Craig hit Emma backdoor, but soon afterwards picked up her second foul as Worth County continued to gain steam and started to realize they could still play basketball with Anna Gladstone sidelined. Kristin New scored off a drive, Jenna Smith hit Kaylee McElvain inside, Regan Allee scored off a drive off a pass from Jill Hardy, and Regan Allee hit Jessi Badell inside for her sixth point of the quarter to make it 18-17 at the half.
Worth County was picking up the pressure against North Harrison, swarming the ball and forcing them to turn it over as well as anyone this year. North Harrison turned it over 22 times for the game, one of their highest totals of the year.
Like the first two quarters, the third was a battle of wills for almost three minutes. Worth County could not take the lead, and North Harrison could not pull away. Finally, Payton Craig got loose on a drive, cleaned up her own miss, and got a three point play to open the floodgates at the 5:19 mark of the third. Regan Allee scored off a drive to make it 21-19, but that would prove to be Worth County’s only tally of the third quarter. Payton Craig pushed one ahead and missed, but Emma was there for a putback. Payton got her first steal of the game and then cut inside and got a pass from Addie Slaughter to make it 27-19 after three quarters.
With the latter score, Payton Craig crossed the 1,700 point mark and finished the night with 1,704. In North Harrison’s subsequent 44-28 victory over Milan, she got 18 more, leaving her with 1,722 career points, 37 away from sister Haley and the second spot on the all-time career point list behind Jill Wilcoxson, with 1,963 career points.
Brandy Rivet had been held scoreless for the whole night as Worth County had been covering her well, closing out hard on her all night long. But then a drive from Payton Craig set her up for her first triple of the night and Craig hit two free throws to make it 32-19 early in the fourth.
Worth County put on the press, but at first, nothing worked as Mason Cracraft got on the scoreboard with two free throws and Payton Craig got a tip and steal and put on a hesitation move on a defender to make it 36-22 with 4:22 left.
But then the Tigers finally started attacking the basket and Jessi Badell, the Shamrock killer, once again got them going with a backdoor look set up by Regan Allee’s drive, hitting two free throws. Kaylee McElvain took on three green shirts after being set up by Regan Allee’s offensive rebound with 1:51 left. Worth County was heavily outrebounded in the first half, but their strong offensive rebounding nearly got them back in the game in the fourth and they nearly wiped out their rebounding deficit by the end of the game.
Regan Allee hit a free throw with 1:36 left and rebounding stalwart Addie Slaughter fouled out, giving Worth County a glimmer of hope. Brandy Rivet hit one of two to make it ten again at 37-27, and Jill Hardy missed a three that would have made it seven, but Worth County got the ball back after an offensive board and Kristin New drove and got a three point play to make it 37-30 with 49.5 seconds left.
North Harrison ran down the clock all the way to 27 seconds, but Brandy Rivet missed two free throws. The Tigers had a chance to cut it to four or five, but traveled with the basketball and gave it back. They tried to put Olivia Babinski on the line with 14 seconds left, which made sense as she came into the game averaging 1.7 points per game. But Babinski stepped to the line like she had done it all her life and knocked down both free throws to put the dagger in Worth County’s hearts at 39-30. It was a 4-5 point swing that came at the wrong time.
Regan Allee scored off a drive to make it seven before Rivet hit a free throw for the final score with 4.8 seconds.
For Worth County, Regan Allee had 9 points. Jessi Badell had 8, Kristin New had 7, Kaylee McElvain 5, and Jill Hardy 3.
Kristin New and Jessi Badell each had one block for the Tigers.
Jill Hardy had 8 boards for Worth County. Kristin New had 7, Kaylee McElvain and Regan Allee 4 each, Jill Hardy 3, and Merrideth Spiers and Megan Cassavaugh 2 each.
Regan Allee had 3 assists for the Tigers. Kristin New and Jill Hardy had 2 each, while Jenna Smith had 1.
Jessi Badell had 9 tips for Worth County. Regan Allee had 5, Kaylee McElvain 4, and Kristin New had 2.
Regan Allee had 7 steals for the Tigers. Kristin New had 3, and Megan Cassavaugh, Jenna Smith, Jill Hardy, and Jessi Badell had 1 each.
For North Harrison, Payton Craig had 19, Emma Craig 8, Brandy Rivet 5, Olivia Babinski 4, and Addie Slaughter and Mason Cracraft 2 each.
Olivia Babinski and Addie Slaughter had 1 block each.
Payton Craig had a double double as she had 11 boards. Emma Craig had 8, Kami Gibson 5, Addie Slaughter 4, Brandy Rivet and Mason Cracraft 2, and Olivia Babinski 1.
Payton Craig had 4 assists for North Harrison. Addie Slaughter had 3, Brandy Rivet 2, and Mason Cracraft 1.
Brandy Rivet, Addie Slaughter, and Payton Craig had 3 tips. Emma Craig had 2 and Mason Cracraft 1.
Payton Craig had 4 steals, while Mason Cracraft had 2 and Emma Craig 1.
The Shamrocks continued to capitalize on their newfound emphasis on defense Thursday as they held off Milan 44-28. They contested every shot, holding the Wildcats to 19% shooting, while keeping them off the boards and holding them to 20. Payton Craig had 18 to lead the Shamrocks. Emma Craig and Addie Slaughter had 10 each, while Brandy Rivet had 6.
No comments:
Post a Comment