CLINTON — The stance screamed frustration.
It wasn’t a proper defensive alignment, either, but Drew Smith wasn’t concerned about that.
With hands on hips and elbow pointed
outward and his body tilted to one side, the Parklane Academy girls basketball coach was trying to find a way to spark his team. After a little more than 12 minutes, Class A Hebron Christian was tied with Class AAAA Parklane Academy at 20 and Smith wasn’t pleased. He stood with hands on hips for a moment and then walks down his sideline before crouching in a catcher’s stance in front of his bench to watch the action.
“We’ve got to a better job playing defense,” Smith said when asked after the game what was going through his mind at that moment. “In the halfcourt, fullcourt, we didn’t do a very good job in the first half. We thought it was a focus thing.”
Parklane Academy found the focus Smith was looking for in the second half as it pulled away for a 50-28 victory in the Mississippi Association of Independent Schools Overall State tournament at Mississippi College’s A.E. Wood Coliseum.
Tootie Carter had a game-high 15 points, while Alissa Barlow added 10 for Parklane Academy (27-9), which will play Kirk Academy at 1 p.m. Friday.
Parklane Academy was coming off a 70-56 victory against Lamar Christian in the first round. Smith said his team has been involved in plenty of high-scoring games lately, so that might have contributed to the lack of defense he felt he saw from his squad against Hebron Christian in the first half. Parklane Academy was more active on defense in the second half, even if Hebron Christian had plenty of good looks at the basket.
Parklane Academy also relied on its size advantage in the post to make things tough on Hebron Christian. The athleticism of Carter, who had five steals, and Destini Brown (eight points) was hard for the Lady Eagles to contain. Post players Rachel McGrew (four points, six rebounds) and Millie Hudson (four points, two blocked shots) played well, but Parklane Academy often was quicker to the basketball and had numerous opportunities at second and third shots.
“We have a really good inside presence,” Smith said. “Hebron had a lot of size, too. I was impressed with the size of their girls. They did a good job offensively and defensively. Our girls are pretty skilled. My post player, Tootie, has been our go-to player all year. If she is not producing for us, we struggle. That is always one of our (points of) emphasis on the offensive end, getting the ball inside and using our size advantage and our athleticism to our advantage.”
Holly Hudson paced Hebron Christian, the Class A champion for the second-straight season, with nine points. Unfortunately, the Lady Eagles (24-3) scored only eight points in the second half on 3-for-16 shooting. They also had 25 turnovers (Parklane Academy had 18 steals), which was a better mark than the 42 the Lady Eagles committed last season in a loss to 60-42 loss to Kirk Academy.
Still, Hebron Christian coach Bruce Franks was pleased with his team’s season, even if he felt a little something was missing for the second-straight season.
“We couldn’t guard the post,” Franks said. “They had too much post for us. I don’t know. We just don’t play with the same — I don’t know what the word is — intensity when we get our here compared to the state championship game. But I am proud of the kids. They had a great season. We didn’t finish it like we wanted to. I would have liked to have won one game down here and see what happened, but it wasn’t meant to be.”
Franks felt the Lady Eagles gained a sense of confidence early when they stayed in the game. McGrew scored inside off a pass from Hudson to cut Parklane Academy’s lead to 16-13 after one quarter. An offensive rebound putback and free throw by Hudson tied the game at 18 before Millie Hudson scored off a pass from Brooke Griffin to tie the game for the last time at 20. Parklane scored the final seven points in the final 3 minutes, 42 seconds to take a 27-20 halftime lead.
From there, Hebron Christian had difficulty getting anything to go right. The Lady Eagles didn’t score in the third quarter until the 3:35 mark on a drive by Eliana Carter. Parklane Academy responded in by extending its lead to 35-20 prior to the basket. In all, the Lady Eagles were scoreless for 8:07.
Things weren’t any better on defense, as McGrew struck a pose similar to Smith in the third quarter when she turned with her hands on her hips with a look on her face that asked, “What am I supposed to do?” after Carter hit a turnaround jump shot and was fouled.
“We played a zone, but we sit back and let them do what they want to on offense,” Franks said. “You have to play man to man and trap out of it somewhere so they can’t get a good look. When we played man to man they posted one of those girls up and scored with no problem.”
The game marked the end of the careers for the Hudson sisters, Griffin, and Rebekah Falkner. Falkner said it was difficult to fathom that her career was over, but she said the Lady Eagles did their best early to stay in the game.
“It is just a bittersweet moment,” Falkner said. “It felt like we had a better chance today and we were more of a team. We just weren’t hitting our shots. We have had days like today when our shots don’t drop, but usually one of us can make up for it. Today, it just wasn’t working.”
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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