Having Jael Harried in the lineup makes a huge difference for the Siloam Springs girls basketball team.
The proof lies in the Lady Panthers' 44-18 win over Prairie Grove on Saturday in the championship of the Siloam Springs Holiday Classic.
On Nov. 26, without Harried -- who was on a family trip -- the Lady Panthers dropped a 59-55 loss to the same Prairie Grove team on their home court at the Panther Activity Center.
On Saturday it was a different story.
Harried scored 21 points and the Lady Panthers played stifling defense to improve to 6-6 overall. Harried had 20 points on Friday as Siloam Springs beat Springdale 63-36 in the opening game of the tournament.
"Jael Harried is really playing well right now, and our whole team is feeding off of her confidence," said Siloam Springs coach Tim Rippy. "It was great to see our team finish this week. We did what we needed to do down the stretch of both ball games."
Against Prairie Grove on Saturday, the Lady Panthers took an 11-8 lead after the first quarter and outscored the Lady Tigers 10-2 in the second quarter to go up 21-10 at halftime.
Siloam Springs carried a 32-16 lead into the fourth quarter.
Mia Hevener added six points for the Lady Panthers, while Halle Hernandez had four, Morgan Winesburg, Brooke Henderson and Sydney Moorman each with three and Quincy Efurd and Alexsis Fortner both with two.
"I am proud of our team for responding this week with two solid games," Rippy said. "We are becoming more efficient on the offensive end of the floor and our defensive rebounding is really improving."
Providence Academy defeated Springdale 52-48 in the other girls game on Saturday.
Siloam Springs now makes the long trip to Beebe to open 5A-West Conference play on Friday. The Lady Panthers won both games against the Lady Badgers last season.
Sports on 01/08/2020