El Dorado girls baskteball team tries to keep season alive.
With both teams out of timeouts, the last 30 seconds of El Dorado’s 6A West, do-or-die playoff game with Siloam Springs was more frantic panic than casual calm.
In the end, the Lady Wildcats missed two 3-point attempts in the final seconds and fell 46-45 at Wildcat Arena.
The loss ended El Dorado’s season at 12-14.
“I’m proud of the fight of this team,” said El Dorado coach Destinee Rogers.
“We’ve struggled all year long. We’ve never given up. We’ve been right there in it with teams. We just haven’t been able to pull it out. This is definitely a learning season for a lot of these kids, especially my returners.
“They gained a lot of experience this year. I’m excited about the experience they gained. They’ll be able to carry it over going into next year.”
Siloam Springs’ Hadlee Hollenbach scored on an up-and-under move in the lane to give the Lady Panthers a 1-point lead with 47.5 seconds left.
The Lady Wildcats would have three chances to tie or take the lead. El Dorado missed the front end of a 1-and-1 with 20.1 ticks remaining but Siloam Springs lost the rebound out of bounds.
El Dorado couldn’t find a shot in the paint but Grace Murry got loose for an open 3-point attempt on the right wing.
The shot was dead-on but spun around the rim and then spun out.
After a scramble for the rebound, El Dorado was awarded the ball out of bounds under its own basket with 0.8 seconds remaining.
Again, the Lady Panthers clogged the lane, forcing the pass to the perimeter to Tasia Richardson, whose 3-pointer clanged off the front side of the rim as the final buzzer sounded.
“We were both out of timeouts there in that last 30 seconds. So, I’m sure we were both stressed out,” said Siloam Springs coach Tim Rippy.
“We told our kids in our last timeout, we can’t call anymore so it’s up to you to go make a play. You’re going to have to get a crucial block-out or make a big play.
“I didn’t realize they’d get, like, three inbounds chances underneath. But, we were just screaming at them not to give up a lob in the lane and make them take a perimeter shot. I thought we did a good job of that.”
Morgan Vaughn led Siloam Springs with 15 points while Shelby Johnson scored 10.
“I’m just proud of our kids for persevering until the very end,” said Rippy.
“We’ve got to execute better down the stretch,” said Rogers. “It’s kind of been something we’ve been struggling with all
year long.
“We missed lay-ups at the end and we missed free throws. We gave up some offensive boards. We know what we’ve got to work on and we’re going to hit it hard in the off-season and summer and preseason and we’ll be a lot better at it next year.”
El Dorado jumped out to a 15-9 lead behind Murry’s seven first-quarter points. The Lady Panthers cut the deficit to 21-18 at the half.
Vaughn, the Lady Panthers’ crafty point guard, became more aggressive offensively in the second half. She scored 10 points in a 12-2 run as Siloam Springs built a 30-25 lead.
“Obviously, they were paying particular attention to her,” Rippy said of Vaughn. “We thought she could be more aggressive off the drive. In the second half, we set some ball screens for her.
We just encouraged her at halftime. You’re a good player, go make some plays for us. And, she did.”
The Lady Panthers built a 38-32 lead on Chloe Price’s bucket late in the third.
El Dorado responded with eight straight points. Diamond Hawthorne, Richardson, Jessica Morton and Breya Clark all scored to give the Lady Wildcats a 40-38 advantage with 5:16 remaining. The Lady Panthers regained the lead on buckets by Price and Vaughn.
After missing twice at the line, the Lady Wildcats’ Morton was fouled.
She hit the first free throw but missed the second. El Dorado swarmed the defensive rebound and forced a turnover.
Morton picked up the steal and lay-up to give the Lady Wildcats a 43-42 lead with 1:31 left.
After a timeout, Price beat El Dorado’s full court press and drove the length of the floor for a lay-up with 1:19 remaining. El Dorado’s answer came from Richardson, who drove left to the basket and then scooped a shot off the glass with her right hand, giving the Lady Cats a 45-44 lead with 1:03 on the clock.
Again, Siloam Springs scored quickly on Hollenbach’s up-and-under move in the lane with 47.1 left to play.
Morton led El Dorado with 15 points and 10 rebounds.
Hawthorne had nine boards. Murry scored seven point four assists and two steals.
The end was jubilation for the Lady Panthers, who left Siloam Springs at eight o’clock in the morning. For the Lady Wildcats, the loss was devastating with most of the players leaving the court in tears.
Rogers hopes those tears will turn into fuel for the underclassmen.
“As a competitor, it should. If this does not fuel you to get in the gym and work harder then I shouldn’t be coaching or they shouldn’t be playing,” she said.
“This motivates me to go above and beyond and I hope it does the same for them to not feel this again next year.”
BOYS LAKE HAMILTON 60, EL DORADO 41
PEARCY - After picking up a road victory to open the 6A West Conference Tournament, El Dorado failed to make it two straight, falling to the Wolves in the semifinals.
The Wildcats trailed 6-4 at the end of the first quarter and 21-19 at intermission, but the Wolves pulled away in the third period, taking a 35-27 lead before winning by the final margin.
Joderrio Ramey and B.J. Johnson each had 12 points for the Wildcats, who will play at Sheridan in the third-place game on Saturday.
Brendan Simmons added eight points for El Dorado (13-15).