Ellington, South Iron girls punch tickets to BRL title game

ELLINGTON — A chance to take on a legitimate state girls basketball power presented itself for the East Carter Lady Redbirds in a Big River League tournament semifinal Wednesday night.

The No. 4 seed went at it with No. 1 seed South Iron and for a half the Lady Redbirds found themselves in striking range of a win if a few things could come correct.

Yet, that would not come to full fruition and the Lady Panthers denied East Carter a spot in Saturday’s final with an emphatic 66-38 win.

South Iron will play Ellington in the 4:30 p.m. title game, while East Carter takes on Bunker in the noon third-place game earlier that day. Ellington beat Bunker 58-50 in Wednesday's other semifinal.

Breanna Dohleman (12 points), Brooklyn Kearbey (11) and Parker Golden (nine) led East Carter which missed 16 shots at the rim.

“We did not play to our abilities — we got outrebounded and threw the ball away,” East Carter head coach Angela Rodgers said.

East Carter trailed 12-2 out of the gate as the Lady Panthers flexed their reputable hoops muscles, but the Lady Redbirds started to feel their groove soon after.

The girls from Ellsinore battled back scoring the next seven points to pull within three, but from there the Lady Panthers had two mini-runs compared to their counterparts and headed into the break up 24-14.

Make no mistake, the deficit was misleading because the Lady Redbirds found a lot of what they looked for on the offensive end, but failed to finish numerous point-blank attempts and committed a handful of turnovers that came under minimal duress.

“Sixteen missed easy shots is 32 points and we lost by 33 so that would have made it a different game,” Rodgers said. “That’s a lack of focus and you need that to compete and we did not.

“It wasn’t good basketball. If I had been in the stands I might have left.”

If that could be cleaned up, East Carter had a chance.

On the unfortunate side for the squad, much of the same continued in the first four minutes of the third quarter and South Iron used those opportunities to push out to a 34-17 lead.

Momentum for the Lady Panthers continued and the game suddenly started to get away from the Lady Redbirds who trailed 53-23 heading into the final quarter.

Kearbey felt that her team may have been intimidated by the South Iron credit, which Rodgers acknowledged might have been possible.

“We did let it get to our head a little bit that they went to state and they are a very good team with a very good coach,” Kearbey said. “We were a little intimidated. Some of us probably went into the game thinking that we already lost it, so we played it that way.

“We automatically thought we were losing and didn’t realize how close we were (in the first half) and we just didn’t grab it and didn’t finish our shots.”

Kearbey added she thinks Saturday’s game and a solid showing there could go a long way toward building back her team’s confidence.

“We need to win this game,” Kearbey said. “We need our redemption against Bunker (who beat East Carter last week).”

For Ellington, the Lady Whippets (8-6) were paced by Kaylee King who bounced back from a tough outing Thursday against Poplar Bluff with a 40-point explosion against Bunker. Sadie Lloyd finished with 10 points and Ella Morton contributed eight to account for Ellington’s scoring.

As for Ellington, the game was a back-and-forth affair in the early going as the hosts led 11-10 after eight minutes.

The second quarter, the Lady Whippets established a bit more separation and got out in front 24-18 heading into the halftime break, but the outcome was still in doubt.

From there, King and company continued to maintain its edge — establishing a 35-20 lead midway through the third quarter — although the Bunker girls didn’t fade into the distance.

It took some steely patience and the ability to make the key shots and defensive stops for Ellington to finally to bed any thoughts of a Lady Eagles flourish and upset.

In Thursday’s boys semifinals, No. 1 South Iron plays No. 4 Ellington at 5:30 and No. 3 East Carter takes on No. 2 Bunker following the conclusion of the earlier game.