NSM, Pisgah fall in close SMT girls semifinals contests
Jason Bowen
A matchup of Class 2A’s top-two ranked teams was won by the No. 1-ranked team Section, and now the Lions have a shot at capturing a championship because of it.
Section opened up a double-figure lead in the second quarter and controlled the second half en route to a 73-54 victory over No. 2-ranked Pisgah in the Sand Mountain Tournament semifinals Thursday night at Sylvania High School.
Second-seeded Section (10-2) advanced to play top-seeded and eight-time defending Sand Mountain Tournament champion Plainview in the event’s varsity boys division’s championship game tonight at 7:30 p.m. Plainview defeated fourth-seeded Geraldine 65-39 in Thursday’s other semifinal game.
After a back-and-forth first quarter that saw Section hold a 15-14 lead by quarter’s end, Section’s defense took control and limited Pisgah (5-2) to only eight second-quarter points, allowing the Lions to build a 33-22 halftime edge. Section pushed its lead to 53-35 after three quarters before leading by as many as 24 in the fourth.
Seven different players scored at least seven points for Section, which got a game-high 20 from Jackson Cooper. Tyler Green and Sam Swinford finished with nine points each for the Lions and Brodie Overdear added eight against his former team while Jackson LeRoy, Kyler Stewart and Aiden Thomas had seven each, Luke Swinford had three and Aaron Thomas had two.
Luke Gilbert scored 15 points and Caleb Jenkins netted 10 for sixth-seeded Pisgah, which also got nine from Jackson Smalley, seven from Legion McCrary, six from Landon Shaver, four from Mason Brown, two from Kameron Tinker and one from Cape Duncan.
VARSITY GIRLS SEMIFINALS
Plainview 66, NSM 63 — At Sylvania, fourth-seeded North Sand Mountain missed two game-tying 3-pointers in the final 15 seconds as top-seeded and Class 4A No. 4-ranked Plainview advanced to the tonight’s varsity girls division title game against second-seeded and 1A No. 2 Ider.
NSM (9-6) trailed 20-15, 32-30 and 49-40 at the quarter breaks, and Sawyer Kate Hulgan’s 3-pointer gave two-time defending SMT champion Plainview (15-3) its largest lead of 12 just seconds into the fourth quarter. NSM trailed 60-51 with less than four minutes remaining, but the Bison rallied to within 62-61with 2:32 remaining following one 3-pointer from Kayden Reyes, two from Madison Renfro and a Reyes free throw. After back-to-back buckets from Kylee Dutton gave Plainview a 66-61 lead with a minute remaining, Reyes hit two foul shots with 53.1 seconds left to pull the Bison back to within one score. NSM then forced a Plainview turnover, but the Bison were unable to connect on a pair of tying 3-pointers, including one as time expired.
Reyes finished with a career-high 42 points for NSM. Renfro tallied 11 points for the Bison, including three fourth-quarter 3-pointers, while Kaleigh Roberts and Raygan Weldon added three points each and Kali Kirkpatrick and Abby Shaffer had two each.
Hulgan scored 25 points for Plainview while Lauren Jimmerson netted 15 and Taegan Whitmire added 10.
Ider 71, Pisgah 65 — At Sylvania, second-seeded and Class 1A No. 2-ranked Ider made 14 of 16 free-throw attempts in the fourth-quarter to fend off third-seeded and 2A No. 10 Pisgah’s rally attempt in the Sand Mountain Tournament semifinals on Thursday.
Pisgah (7-4) led 23-17 after one quarter, but Ider (14-1) moved in front 36-31 at halftime and led 49-46 entering the fourth quarter. The Eagles pulled to within 52-51 midway through the fourth on Alli Romans’ 3-point play, but a two-point basket from Julie Mavity and a 3-pointer from Makinley Traylor gave the Hornets a 57-51 lead, and Ider went to stall mode after that, with Pisgah chasing a dribbling Traylor and being forced to foul.
Traylor was 12-of-14 from the free-throw line over the final 2:05 and finished with a career-high 41 points. The Hornets, coached by NSM alum and former Section and North Jackson and Section varsity boys head coach Jamie Pruett, also got nine points each from Addisyn Heard and Brynley Traylor and six from Kennzie Smith.
Ashton Childress and Campbell Barron scored 22 and 21 points respectively for Pisgah, which also got seven each from Romans and Paisley Patalas, three each from Taylor Bell and Ella Grace Samples and two from Madeline Flammia.
