By DAVID PIERCE
Sports Connection Team
MANILA – Although all three teams earned berths in the 3A State Tournament this week in Elkins, it will be the Manila Lady Lions entering the tourney as a three seed, while the Rivercrest Lady Colts and the Gosnell Pirates will be four seeds in their respective 16-team fields.
The Lady Lions (24-8) beat Rivercrest, 48-30, in the girls’ Class 3 Region 2 third place game chalking up victory number three in four tries this season over their Mississippi County rival.
Meanwhile, the Gosnell boys squad (14-14) were on the wrong end of a 74-52 score in their consolation game contest against Corning (23-11).
With the win the Lady Lions, draw Region 4 two-seed Dumas (27-6) and played Feb. 28 at 4 p.m. Meanwhile, Rivercrest had a daunting task as they face an undefeated Fouke squad which stands at 35-0 after winning the Region 4 tournament. The Lady Colts tipped Tuesday at 7 p.m.
The Lady Lions avoided the clash with Fouke by putting on a defensive display Saturday afternoon against Rivercrest. Normally, a team which has little difficulty scoring, Rivercrest managed just the 30 points in the loss.
They had pulled as closed as 21-20 early in the third quarter, but the youthful Lady Lions reeled off 27 of the game’s final 35 points to post the lopsided victory.
The game was marked by foul trouble for both teams as officials whistled a total of 42 fouls resulting in Manila’s Chloe Helms and Rivercrest’s Ella Gonzales exiting the game with five fouls each. Altogether, another three players collected four foul calls.
Three players reached double figures for Manila with freshman Lucy Farmer tallying a game-high 18, while Jordan LaRose and Bailey Wilson chipped in 10 each.
Rivercrest didn’t have a single player reach double figures. Mercuriah Vance led her team with eight, Mykayla Banks, who picked up three early fouls, scored seven, and Jalexia Young, in her second game back from injury, added six. Zakiya Brownlee, who was dominant in the district finals against Manila, managed just three points and all those came in the first quarter.
Corning 74, Gosnell 52
Corning outscored Gosnell, 41-21, in the second half to post the resounding 22-point win.
The Pirates, plagued by foul trouble, didn’t have an answer for the Bobcats senior sharpshooter Jayce Couch who scored 24 points, which included five three-pointers.
Three other Bobcat players reached double digits led by Roman Davis’s 15. Luke Blanchard and Seth Green added 11 and 10, respectively.
Gosnell, which faced Region 4 champion Dumas (28-4) in the first round of the state tournament, was led by Cam Williams’s 20 points and Marcus Anderson’s 14. Anderson and teammate Rylan Jenkins were both saddled with foul trouble in the second half.