Lady Indians fall in regional consolation game

By COSMO COSSEY

Sports Connection Team

Marked Tree (28-7) played Mammoth Spring toe to toe in the first quarter only to see their offense go south the next three quarters, as the Lady Indians lost 62-25 in the consolation game of the 1A-3 Regional Tournament this past Saturday in Greers Ferry. The Lady Indians had already punched their ticket to the 1A state tournament with a 52-41 win over Rural Special last Wednesday. Marked Tree will play Kingston today at 1:00 p.m. at North Arkansas College in Harrison.

Mammoth Spring jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the opening quarter before Alesia Rand stuck back an offensive rebound to make it 4-2 Lady Bears. Mammoth Spring canned a three-pointer making it 7-2 as the Lady Indians reeled off the next seven points with Journi Versie and Rand scoring back to back baskets in the paint and Zyonna Anderson hitting triple twine to make the score 9-7 Marked Tree with 2:40 left. A jumper and a three-ball from Mammoth Spring made it 12-9 Lady Bears, but Anderson cut the lead to 12-11 with two free throws for the Lady Indians. Mammoth Spring hit a three-pointer before Anderson hit a jumper in the lane for Marked Tree to make the score 15-13 Lady Bears after one.

Kimyhe Jones hit one of two free throws for the Lady Indians early in the second quarter to make it 15-14 only to see Mammoth Spring hit two free throws and a jumper to go up 19-14. Versie scored inside for Marked Tree before the Lady Bears scored the next eight points to push the lead to 27-16 with 3:35 left. Lakrissa Dupree canned a three-pointer for Marked Tree to make the score 27-18 Lady Bears but Mammoth Spring scored the last seven points of the quarter to take a 34-18 lead at halftime.

Anderson scored inside for Marked Tree to open the third quarter before the Lady Bears canned back to back three-pointers to make it 40-20. Versie hit a jumper in the lane for the Lady Indians, only to see the Lady Bears go on a 9-0 run to push their lead to 51-22 with 2:44 left. Versie hit another jumper in the lane for Marked Tree before the Lady Bears scored back to back baskets to make it 55-24 Mammoth Spring at the end of three quarters.

The Lady Bears hit two free throws to make it 57-24 Mammoth Spring with the mercy clock running at the start of the quarter. Jones hit one of two free throws for the Lady Indians making it 57-25 before Mammoth Spring scored the last five points of the game to make the final score 62-25 Lady Bears.

“After the first quarter it was like with couldn't find the basket. I almost walked down in the second quarter to make sure there wasn't a lid on the basket,” Marked Tree head coach Colten Frazier said after the game. “We got some shots but they just didn't go in for us. I thought our defense wasn't to bad today especially in the box which they really hurt us with last week in the district tournament. We just had a rough time stopping the outside shots today,” Frazier added.

Anderson led Marked Tree in scoring with nine points, while Versie had eight points. Rand tossed in four points, Dupree added three points and Jones chipping in a point for the Lady Indians.