Lady Panthers come up short in OT

Both teams play overtime without point guards after “weird” collision.

Mike Capshaw/Hearld-Leader Siloam Springs senior Kenlie Noel drives baseline while being defended by Prayor (Okla.) High's Beverly Caraway during Monday's openign round of the Jerry Oquin Basketball Tournament in Inola, Okla. The Lady Panthers lost 66-61 in overtime.
Mike Capshaw/Hearld-Leader Siloam Springs senior Kenlie Noel drives baseline while being defended by Prayor (Okla.) High's Beverly Caraway during Monday's openign round of the Jerry Oquin Basketball Tournament in Inola, Okla. The Lady Panthers lost 66-61 in overtime.

INOLA, Okla. -- One field goal in overtime wasn't enough for the Siloam Springs Lady Panthers to open the Jerry Oquin Basketball Tournament on Monday.

Senior Morgan Vaughn, who finished with a season-high 33 points, drove across the lane for a reverse layup to open overtime, but Pryor (Okla.) High scored the final seven points to pull away for a 66-61 victory. The Lady Tigers hit all four of their free throw attempts in the final 29.8 seconds to seal the win.

Neither offense was stellar during overtime due to both points guards leaving with injuries after Siloam Springs' Chloe Price collided with Pryor's Chloe Martin late in regulation. It left one player needing dental work and the other with blood oozing from her scalp, although both appeared fine afterward.

"Our point guard chipped a tooth and it got stuck in their point guards head," said Siloam Springs coach Timothy Rippy. "It was a weird play, but that left both of us without a point guard for overtime and we were a little out of sync, or out of sorts maybe, on offense."

hit Pryor's lone field goal in overtime when she connected for a 3-pointer to give her team a 62-61 lead. Without a point guard, the Lady Tigers passed the ball around the perimeter to milk more than two minutes off of the clock before the Lady Panthers finally had to foul.

Prior to bucket, Siloam Springs had answered each time Pryor tried to get back into it. After a free throw tied the score at 12-12, sophomore Kenlie Noel sank a 3-pointer to give the Lady Panthers a 15-12 lead at the end of the first quarter.

Siloam Springs led by as many as six points in the second quarter but a 7-2 Pryor run cut it to 20-19 midway through the quarter.

Pryor answered by driving hard down the right side of the lane for a tough basket off of a fast break and Vaughn followed with the first of her seven 3-pointers to push the lead back up to 24-19. But the Lady Tigers would score the final five points to cut the deficit to 25-24 at halftime.

Both teams traded buckets and leads throughout the third quarter before Siloam Springs gained separation with a 3-pointer by Price to open the fourth quarter that made it 43-39. The Lady Panthers also led by four points (46-42) when Vaughn answered a Pryor 3-pointer with a 3-pointer of her own. Vaughn finished with 22 of her 33 points in the second half.

They led by four again (57-53) after Price had a personal 5-0 run, which included a traditional 3-point play with 1:47 remaining in regulation. But Pryor would finish the fourth quarter with a 6-2 run to send the game into overtime.

An offense rebound and putback by Pryor's M'Kayla Hillman in the closing seconds was a play that stood out to Rippy.

"We did some good things, but there are a lot of things we need to work on and rebounding is one of them," Rippy said. "Overall, I was pleased with the effort and playing in a tight game like this that goes into overtime will be a good learning experience for us for the rest of the season."

The Lady Panthers will continue play in the tournament on Friday against the loser of Tuesday's game between Fort Gibson and Tulsa Union's junior varsity.

Pryor, Okla. 66, Siloam Springs 61, OT

Siloam Springs^15^10^15^19^2^--^61

Pryor, Okla.^12^12^15^20^7^--^66

Siloam Springs (2-5): Vaughn 33, Price 16, Johnson 4, Noel 3, Brown 2, Hollenback 2, Buckminster 1.

Pryor, Okla. (2-1): Martin 17, Caraway 16, Hillman 13, Wood 6, Nichols 5, Miller 4, Daily 1.

Ozark, Mo. 63, Siloam Springs 39

The Lady Tigers pulled away in the second half to claim fifth place in the 2017 First National Bank of NWA Great 8 Girls Basketball Classic at War Eagle Arena on the campus of Rogers Heritage on Saturday.

Ozark (2-1) led only 28-22 at halftime, but used a big second half to take over and go on to the easy win. Sophomore Madi Braden led three Lady Tigers in double figures with 14, including three 3-pointers. Anna Hitt added 13 and Olivia Hanks chipped in 10.

Morgan Vaughn led Siloam Springs with a game-high 16, including three 3-pointers. Hadlee Hollenback scored eight points, while Kenlie Noel and Brooklyn Buckminster each had five, Emery Brown four and Shelby Johnson one.

General News on 12/06/2017