The 16th annual North Central Arkansas Girls’ All-Star Basketball Game was played Monday evening at North Arkansas College’s Pioneer Pavilion with the East holding off the West for a 59-58 victory.
The East led for much of the game and by as many as six points on two occasions. The East 47-44 going into the fifth and final stanza where it lead 53-49 in the early moments of the quarter. Bergman’s Ruby Trammell got the West within a point, 53-52, on a 3-pointer but Valley Springs’ Camie Moore countered on the other end with a 3-pointer of her own for a 56-52 East lead with 1:30 left to play.
The West then stormed back to take the lead with a 6-0 run. Alpena’s Cassidy Oller drained a 3-pointer then Kingston’s Lila Hartness hit 1 of 2 fresh throws with 1:05 left to knot the score at 56-56. After the teams turned the ball over three consecutive times. Hartness put the West up 58-56 with 25 seconds left, the squad’s first lead since the first half.
However 10 seconds later, Moore knocked down her second trey of the quarter to get the lead back for the East, 59-58. The West then missed three shots in the waning seconds.
Harrison’s Anabelle Massengale hit the game’s first bucket for the West before Flippin’s Ally Hodges hit a 3-pointer and Norfork’s Keely Blanchard scored from the lane for a 5-2 East lead. The West stormed back with a 6-0 run and went up 8-5 on a bucket by Bergman’s Savannah Ketchum but the East scored the final six points of the opening stanza, going up 11-8 on a layup by Blanchard.
Alpena’s Laini Block got the West within 11-10 with the first bucket of the second quarter but Ozark Mountain’s Jailyn Jackson answered with a 3-pointer on the other end for a 14-10 East lead. Another Jackson trey made it 17-12 and her short jumper put the East up 20-15 when West closed the second with a 4-0 run, capped by a steal and a layup by Trammell to cut the gap to 20-19.
The East gained its first 6-point lead of the game when Hodges scored to open the third then Valley Springs’ Katey Henson drained a 3-pointer from the left baseline for a 25-19 East advantage. However, the East went cold from the field for nearly four minutes as the West was able to pull even at 25-25. Moore ended the East drought with a 3-pointer at the 1:12 mark but Trammell answered with a trey seconds later to tie the score at 28-28. The West then gained its first lead since late in the first quarter when Lead Hill’s Alexus Egger scored from the lane for a 30-28 edge. After an East miss, the West had possession of the ball but was stolen by Henson who pushed it forward to a streaking Makaela Blair of Marshall who converted the layup, was fouled then hit the free throw for a 31-30 each, pushed to 34-30 when Moore canned a halfcourt shot at the halftime horn.
The girls’ 3-point shootout was held at intermission and Blair took the title.
The East had their second 6-point advantage of the game when Jackson hit a 3-pointer early in the fourth quarter for a 40-34 lead. The West fought back to tie the score at 44-44 before Blanchard knocked down a 3-pointer for a 47-44 East lead after four quarters.
The East finished the contest with 12 3-pointers, four by Moore who led the team with 13 points while Hodges and Jackson each tallied 11. Also scoring for the East, Blanchard finished with nine, Blair had three, Henson had three, Valley Springs’ Eliza Drewry had three, Flippin’s Marcee Benedict had three, Yellville-Summit’s Abby Methvin had two and Ozark Mountain’s Tara Yocham added one.
Trammell led the West with 12 points, Ketchum had 10 Huntsville’s Morgan Limson had six, Massengale had five, Ohler had five, Hartness had five, Block had four, Huntsville’s Mena Thomas had four, Egger had four and Bergman’s Madison Huskey had three.
