Big run pushes Lady Redbirds past Naylor for third

GREENVILLE — Following a disappointing semifinal loss to Neelyville earlier this week, the East Carter Lady Redbirds made sure to wrap up this year’s Ozark Foothills Conference tournament with style.

Led by a blistering 23 points by Brooklyn Kearbey, 15 from Breanna Dohleman and Parker Golden’s 10 points, No. 2 East Carter used a 26-0 run over the middle quarters to roll to a 59-22 win over No. 5 Naylor in the third-place game.

“We started kind of slow, but the third quarter was kind of good tonight,“ East Carter head coach, Angela Rodgers said. “I can’t complain. It’s a win.

“I’m glad we won and it’s better than the alternative. We needed this to get ourselves back and to keep rolling into next week“

Naylor was led by Harley Sullivan (12 points), who missed the second half due to injury, while Zoey Sprous added five points in the loss.

“I thought we played very well the first half of this game,“ Naylor head coach Logan Foster said. “Harley is the glue that holds us together, but you still have to play and compete and we simply didn’t do that.”

East Carter got the first burst of momentum taking an early five-point lead thanks to a Kearbey triple and some easy buckets inside.

But Naylor wouldn’t be Naylor without being, well Naylor, and the Lady Eagle kept scrapping and kept things interesting through the first quarter and trailed 14-11.

The offenses struggled to get off the mark to start the second quarter as both teams seemed to have gotten a good feel for the other.

Kearbey banged another 3-bomb to push the Lady Redbirds back up four points.

A late and-one by Dohleman pushed the Lady Redbirds to a 24-16 lead and the she added a bunny off a Golden feed seconds later to get East Carter a 10-point halftime lead.

What didn’t help Naylor’s cause was having Harley Sullivan sit out to start the second half after a fall right before halftime and East Carter rode a nice run to start the third quarter as Kearbey stayed sizzling to go up 36-16.

East Carter finished the third quarter with a 24-1 advantage over the eight minutes and led 50-17 with a period to go.

The OFC title game features No. 3 Neelyville taking on top-seed Doniphan Friday at Three Rivers College. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m.