Arcadia Valley girls basketball ends Woodland's season in district semifinals

The Woodland girls basketball team knew the problem it faced. The Cardinals just didn't come up with the answers.

The third-seeded Cardinals were victimized by turnovers that led to easy baskets and struggled to get in an offensive rhythm as they fell to second-seeded Arcadia Valley, 70-50, in a semifinal of the Class 3 District 2 tournament Monday night at Scott City High School.

In what was a two-point game with just three minutes left in first quarter, the Tigers (18-9) went on a 12-2 run late in the period to push the differential to double figures. Woodland (15-12) was unable to cut into that gap.

"There were really two stretches of the game that made the difference," Woodland coach Robert Stein said. "In the first quarter we had six turnovers in a row and they scored on every one of them; in the third quarter they had four run-outs where we didn't get back. That was the entire difference in the game.

"We knew they were one of the better teams in the area. ... They ran the clock on a couple of teams that beat us in close games, so we knew we were in for an uphill climb all night long. I thought we competed well all night long."

A strong performance from Krista Rhodes wasn't enough to overcome the gap, as she scored 24 points and added three blocks on the defensive end. Senior Ciara Rainbolt had eight points in her Cardinal farewell.

Arcadia Valley put four players in double digits scoring, paced by Megan Williams' 22. Jerrika Brockes added 15, while Briar Johnson and Makayla Moise added 10 points apiece.

Woodland forced 10 Tiger turnovers in the second quarter and held Arcadia Valley scoreless for stretches of 2 minutes, 19 seconds and 3 minutes, 4 seconds in the period, but the Cardinal offense went through a dry spell and was unable to counter.

On the flip side, when Woodland was able to put some points on the board -- scoring 32 points in the second half, in large part to its 3-point shooting -- it was unable to slow the Tigers.

The Cardinals were 1 of 9 from 3-point range in the first half before going 5 of 13 from outside the arc after halftime.

In the end, though, Stein was pleased with what he saw from his team as its season came to a close.

"For us it was a tremendous season," Stein said. "We're still real young and that puts us at 15-12 ... It's been a great season for us," Stein said. "Our young kids kept getting better and our seniors had great leadership. We only graduate three of them, so we have most of our team coming back. It's been a lot of fun, to be honest with you. It's kind of sad it had to end tonight."

Woodland found itself in an 8-8 contest at 4:28 of the first quarter, and then stayed within two, 12-10, when Cheyenne Wells hit a floater with 3:07 left in the frame.

Arcadia Valley pulled away from that point on, with Johnson scoring off an inbounds play to spark a 10-0 swing that was capped by Johnson in transition. By the end of the first quarter, the Tigers were up 22-12.

The Cardinals had 27 turnovers on the night, including nine in the first quarter.

Even in a period in which offense was at a premium, Arcadia Valley was able to outscore Woodland 11-6 in the second quarter and take a 33-18 advantage into halftime.

Rhodes drained a 3-pointer for the first bucket of the second half, and suddenly the Cardinals found a little life, as they were able to slice the deficit to 11 points. But Arcadia Valley had an answer every time, and even two more Rhodes' 3s late in the quarter could not get the gap to single digits.

The Tigers went into the final eight minutes up 16 points, 51-35, and were able to extend that through the last quarter.

Woodland hit just 17 of its 50 field-goal attempts (34 percent) for the game.

Arcadia Valley was 26 of 61 (42.6 percent) and 17 of 26 from the free-throw line.

The game was the last for three Woodland seniors -- Rainbolt, Mara Grindstaff and Whitney Lincoln. All were starters.

"[We have] a lot of promise with what we have coming back," Stein said. "All of our sophomores got a significant amount of playing time and one of our juniors gets a lot of playing time. We hope to take a step forward next year and not a step back. We'll just have to wait and see how the offseason plays out."

The Tigers will face top seed Saxony Lutheran (24-2) in the district championship. The Crusaders defeated fourth-seeded Charleston 71-34 in the other semifinal.

Woodland 12 6 17 15 -- 50

Arcadia Valley 22 11 18 19 -- 70

WOODLAND (50) -- Whitney Lincoln 3, Krista Rhodes 24, Mara Grindstaff 3, Hannah Scott 6, Ciara Rainbolt 8, Cheyenne Wells 4, Rebekah Page 2. FG 17-50, FT 10-16, F 22. (3-pointers: Rhodes 4, Rainbolt 2. Fouled out: None.)

ARCADIA VALLEY (70) -- Jerrika Brockes 15, Rebecca Buffington 2, Megan Williams 22, Savannah Price 5, Briar Johnson 10, Makayla Moise 10, Kinsey Phelps 6. FG 26-61, FT 17-26, F 18. (3-pointers: Moise. Fouled out: None.)