Lady Indians fall in regional consolation game

By COSMO COSSEY

Poinsett County

Democrat Tribune

In a tale of two halves, Marked Tree (23-9) led at the end of first two quarters only to see Rural Special return the favor and lead at the end of the next two quarters to take a 50-46 win over the Lady Indians this past Saturday in the consolation game of 1A-2 Regional Tournament Calico Rock.

Marked Tree opened the game with an 11-2 run as Kiasia Burns got the Lady Indians on the board with a jumper before Rural Special answered with a jumper in the lane to tie the game at two. The Lady Indians rolled off the next nine points as Zyonna Anderson hit a jumper, Journi Versie scored in the paint, Burns got a basket down low and Anderson hit triple twine from the left wing making it 11-2 Marked Tree with 2:23 left. The Lady Rebels scored the last six points of the quarter making the score 11-8 at the end of one.

Kimyhe Jones' jumper pushed the Marked Tree lead to 13-8 early in the second quarter as Rural Special scored inside making it 13-10. Anderson hit two free throws for the Lady Indians only to see the Lady Rebels hit one of two free throws and score in the paint making the score 14-13 Marked Tree. Burns scored back to back baskets, Rural Special hit a jumper in the lane, Burns hit a jumper as did the Lady Rebels before Burns netted another jumper to make the score 22-17 Lady Indians. Rural Special canned a three-ball only to see Versie and Burns hit back to back jumpers making it 26-20 Marked Tree. The Lady Rebels got a basket at the buzzer to make it 26-22 Lady Indians at halftime.

Back to back three-pointers to start the third quarter gave Rural Special a 28-26 lead before Marked Tree got two free throws and a steal and layup from Anderson and a jumper from Burns to make it 31-28 Lady Indians. The Lady Rebels ended the third quarter on a 7-0 run to take a 35-31 lead after three.

Rural Special opened the fourth quarter scoring the first six points to push their lead to 41-31. Burns hit two free throws before the Lady Rebels hit a jumper making it 43-33 with 4:52 left. Burns hit one of two free throws, Rural Special scored in the paint only to see Anderson get a steal and layup making the score 45-36 Lady Rebels. Tink Brown scored inside for Marked Tree as Rural Special hit four straight free throws on back to back trips to the foul line to make it 49-38 Lady Rebels. Burns hit two free throws and got a steal and layup to make the score 49-42 Rural Special. Brown canned a three-ball and added one of two free throws cut the lead to 49-46 as the Lady Rebels hit one of two free throws with 10 seconds left to make the final score 50-46 Rural Special.

“I thought our played hard all the way to the end. We had a bad third quarter only scoring five points,” Marked Tree head coach Colten Frazier said after the game. “We got down 10 in the fourth quarter and couldn't overcome that big of a lead,” Frazier added. “This team has a lot of fight in them. We'll go get for the state tournament now,” Frazier said.

Burns scored 23 points to lead Marked Tree as Anderson finished with 10 points.

The Lady Indians won their tournament opener 53-37 over Viola to punch thier ticket to the Class 1A state tournament before falling to Norfork 61-48.