Stories from Thursday, January 19, 2012

Trumann's Lady Wildcats traveled to Pocahontas this past Monday to take on the Lady Redskins. The hosts sent Trumann away with a 43-28 4A-3 conference loss. Jazmye Nixon and Morgan Taylor each scored seven on the night for Trumann. In junior girls' action, Pocahontas beat Trumann, 25-16. Tops Bay Trumann's Lady Wildcats outscored Bay's Lady Yellowjackets 26-10 in the fourth period to pull out a 54-50 victory this past Tuesday night in Bay. Jazmye Nixon led Trumann in scoring with 21 points. Kelly Guthrie tossed in 13. Bay's Hannah Willard led all scorers on the night with 25 points. Bay won the junior high contest, 37-15, led by Brittany Roedel's 11 points.

The Lepanto Sport Complex Youth League will have sign-ups for 2012 t-ball, coach pitch, machine pitch, baseball and softball. The sign-ups will take place on Thursday, January 19th from 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. and Saturday, January 21st from 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. at the EPC cafeteria.

The Bay Yellowjackets visited the Marked Tree Indians this past Monday night and used a balanced offense to hand their hosts an 85-66 loss. Bay (22-4) had five players score in double digits as they Yellowjackets led after every period. Dylan Loven was high scorer for Bay with 20 points on the night. Teammates Gunner Freeman added 17, Damien Holt had 16, Brad Craft pitched in 14 and Tyson Oliver tossed in 11. Thadious Moore led Marked Tree with 16 points while Allen Buchanan added 14 and Darius Ivy and Gunner Pitts both had 10 on the night. Bay won the junior high 39-29 with Tyler Pritchett scoring 16 points.

Trumann's fourth grade girls pee-wee team recently captured the titile in the Valley View Shootout Gold Division.

Trumann traveled to Brookland for 4A-3 conference game this past Tuesday and used a strong fourth period to down the host team 58-53. Trumann (17-6, 5-3) was down at the end of the first three periods, but rallied in the final period to get past the Bearcats. Dylan Dulaney scored 10 of the Wildcats 17 points in the fourth as Trumann came back from a 43-31 deficit for the victory. Malcolm Washington led Trumann in scoring with 25 points. Dulaney followed with 12 points and Lee Conatser pitched in 10. Brookland won the junior high game, 41-31.

EPC's Teria Young used a conventional three-point play to send the game to overtime where the Lady Warriors outscored the Lady Greyhounds 9-5 to pull out a 56-52 2A-3 conference game at Marmaduke this past Monday. Young was fouled with seven seconds left after making a basket to pull EPC to within one, 47-46. She made the foul shot to tie the game. Young had a chance to win the game in regulation with a late steal but her shot was off its mark at the buzzer. EPC (14-6, 9-3) was led in scoring by Terrika Madden with 24 points. Brittany Ball pitched in with 12 as Alicia Ross grabbed 11 rebounds on the night for the Lady Warriors. Marmaduke won the junior high game, 63-12.

EPC used a strong final period to down the visiting Indians of Marked Tree this past Friday night in a 2A-3 conference match up. The Warriors (14-1, 9-0) outscored the Indians 20-12 in the fourth period on their way to a 60-47 win. Darius Ivy got the Indians within three to start the third period as he scored five straight points to cut the lead to 26-23. EPC answered with six straight points, four of those by Jammar Sturdivant, to push the lead to 32-23 with 5:53 left in the third. Marked Tree fought hard and cut the lead to five at the end of the period, 40-35. Sturdivant led EPC in scoring with 22 points. Wendell Pritchett and Jori Ford added 11 and 10 points respectively. Marked Tree was led in scoring by Darius Ivy with 16 points as Allen Buchanan added 13. EPC won the junior game 57-50 as Malik Monk scored 30 for the Warriors. Terry Carter led Marked Tree with 18 and Cameron Mitchell added 12. "We didn't have much effort tonight, didn't do the simple things that needed to be done. We will work on that next week," EPC coach Josh Hill said. "Our intensity on defense was not there. We didn't stick to our game plan," Marked Tree coach Barbara Wilburn said.

Bay and Trumann both had similar paths leading to their meeting in the championship game of the George Kell Classic this past Saturday night in Swifton. Bay made it a three-peat as they fought off a pesky Trumann team for a 70-58 victory. In quarterfinal games last Wednesday, both teams had pretty easy games sending each to the semifinal round. Bay downed Crowley's Ridge Academy 67-31 as three Yellowjacket players scored in double digits. Damien Holt led Bay with 13, Dylan Loven scored 12 and Tyson Oliver tossed in 11. This win set Bay (19-4) up to meet Earle in the next round. Trumann (15-5) knocked Hoxie out of the tournament with a 79-61 win. Malcolm Washington had a double-double with 30 points and 16 rebounds. Lee Conatser pitched in with 17 while Matt Holt and Dylan Dulaney both had 10 points on the night. Nate Maxwell pulled down 15 rebounds. This win sent Trumann to play the second seeded Cave City Cavemen. Both teams needed come from behinds in the last minute of the games in the semifinal round. Trumann used a three-pointer from Dylan Dulaney at the buzzer to get by Cave City 78-77. Matt Holt drove the lane and dished the ball to Dulaney for the winning shot. Washington had another big game for Trumann (16-5) has he scored 36 points and blocked five shots. Holt chipped in with 18 points and dished out seven assists. Conatser had 14 points and Dulaney added 12. Bay (20-4) led at the end of each period but was down three with less than a minute left in the game. Loven hit a three-pointer to tie the game with 50 seconds left. Bay took the lead for good when Freeman converted an old fashioned three-point play to put the score 59-56 with half a minute left in the game. Loven led Bay with 19 points on the night. Freeman and Oliver added 15 and 10 points respectively. In the championship game, Bay used a 15-2 run to open up a 14 point lead after the first period with the score 19-5 in favor of the Yellowjackets. Oliver, who led Bay (21-4) with 24 points on the night, increased the lead to 17 with a stick back basket before the Wildcats went on a 17-5 run to close the gap to 31-26 at the half. Conatser cut the lead to two with a three-pointer to start the third period. Bay went on an eight to two run to build its lead back to seven at 39-31. With Bay up 43-35 Trumann used a seven to two run to get to 45-42 with 12 seconds left in the period. Kail Harris grabbed an offensive rebound and scored with under a second left to give Bay a 47-42 heading into the last period. Bay opened the final period by scoring the first four points to extend their lead to 51-42. Holt nailed a three-pointer and Conatser hit a lay up to get the Wildcats back to within four at 51-46 with six minutes left in the game. Trumann cut the lead to three when Washington scored inside to make it a 56-53 game. The teams scored a basket each before Bay closed the game with a 12 to three run to set the final at 70-58. Freeman and Craft joined Oliver in double digits on the night. Freeman had 20 points while Craft added 13. Holt led Trumann (16-6) with 18 points while Washington had 14 points along with eight blocked shots. "Defensively we played well during the entire tournament. Our bench did a great a job in the championship game," Bay coach Brad Brannen said. Trumann coach Skip Dulaney said, "I thought our kids played with a lot of heart and courage to fight back after being down early."