Pine Bluff – It was a battle from the opening tip, but the Lady Eagles escaped Marion 51-47 in overtime of Saturday’s opening game of the 5A state semifinals at the Pine Bluff Convention Center.
With Vilonia leading 49-47, Mears landed at the free throw line following a timeout and sunk both shots. She was much more at ease knowing the game was, barring a miracle, in hand, contrast to when she had made two moments earlier that put the Lady Eagles up 47-45.
“If there would have been more than .3 seconds left I think there would have been a lot more pressure,” Mears said. “I knew that going up to the line either way if they would have caught and chunked it they still would not have had time to score so that took a lot of pressure off of me.”
Mears has primarily made her name on the defensive end, but showed her all-around game scoring 15 points, which tied with Sidni Middleton to lead all scorers.
“Having two starters out really limited what we were able to do offensively,” Simon said. “We really just tried to spread them out and let our point guards get down hill. We switched to man after half and thought we did a lot better job of guarding them in that than zone. Our zone was good early, but we got tired and lazy so we switched to man.”
The Lady Patriots held a 38-35 lead with 2:49 remaining in the fourth quarter, but a Middleton layup followed by two successful trips to the free throw line by Maddie Mannion quickly gave the advantage back to Vilonia 41-38.
Marion’s Aaliyah Taylor tied it at 41 with a long three-pointer as she fell down and that would take the contest to overtime 31 seconds later.
Both squads traded buckets before Mears’ first trip to the line put the Lady Eagles back up again and Marion would tie it once more after that on a layup by Kiera Neal before Vilonia took the lead for good.
“We just battled to the end, it could have gone either way,” Simon said. “They had the lead then we got it back and then they would get it back.”
Marion was in the semifinals for the third consecutive season and were led by veterans Taylor Little, Neal, and Taylor all had 12 points to lead the Lady Patriots.
“I know how bad those seniors wanted it and you hate it for them because in a game like this you would like to see both teams win,” Simon said. “I am just glad we found a way there at the end.”
Faulkner County Focus Sports 