One week after winning tournament hardware at the 16-team Mountain Grove Girls Holiday Tournament, the Norwood Lady Pirates’ girls basketball team had a chance to repeat their success in the Sparta Lady Trojans Classic.
They did just that by winning two of their three games to finish third place after knocking off Wright County rival Hartville, 52-42, for the hardware.
In the third place contest, the Lady Pirates opened the game with 3-pointers from Kaytlynn Drake and Loran Mooney to go up 6-2.
Addy Gray added a third 3-pointer to put Norwood in front 9-5 heading into the second quarter.
Hartville’s Jayla Ferguson converted a 3-point play for three of her team’s early five points.
In the second quarter, Autumn Gunter began to establish herself as a main presence in the game. She converted a 3-point play and scored six points.
Gray’s 3-pointer put Norwood up by seven points. They ended the half up 21-13. Ferguson had six points for Hartville and ended the first half by scoring nine of her team’s 13 points in the half.
Norwood’s offense made just 7-of-29 shots from the field while Hartville made just 3-of-15 shots. The Lady Eagles did make 8-of-10 free throws in the first half.
The Lady Pirates started the third quarter with an 8-0 run with the help of Gray’s second 3-pointer.
Down 14, Jenna Kelley hit a needed 3-pointer for Hartville as they trailed by 11 points entering the fourth quarter.
In the final frame, Hannah Keith’s 3-pointer for Hartville with around 2:00 left in the game cut the Lady Pirates’ lead to just six points.
Norwood’s Gentry Davault would respond 19 seconds later with a 3-point play to stop Hartville’s momentum.
Keith did add a late 3-pointer to cut the lead back to six with under a minute left before Norwood added four late free throws to seal the win.
Offensively, Norwood made just 15-of-50 shots from the field and 12-of-24 free throws, but won the game by 10 points.
Gray had a big game with four 3-pointers for 13 points, one rebound and one assist.
Gunter scored 10 points, seven rebounds, four assists and two blocks; Mooney, who was an All-Tournament selection, scored 10 points, seven rebounds, two assists and one block; Davault tallied nine points, eight rebounds, four assists, two blocks and one steal; Drake had seven points, three rebounds and one assist; while Jayden Chambers had two points and one rebound.
Hartville’s offense made 14-of-43 shots from the feudal and 12-of-16 shots from the charity stripe.
Kelley, who was named to the All-Tournament team, scored 11 points, seven rebounds and two blocks; Ferguson added 11 points, two rebounds and one assist; Brown had eight points, five assists, four rebounds and one block; Keith scored six points and four rebounds; and Flachsmann had four points, five rebounds and one block.
Beating Greenwood
In the opening round, the Lady Pirates knocked off Greenwood, 47-37.
Gunter scored seven points in the first quarter to help Norwood out to an early 13-6 lead.
Davault scored four points and Cassie Wright added a 3-pointer before halftime to keep Norwood in front by seven points at halftime.
Mooney scored five points while both Drake and Gunter added four points to give the Lady Pirates a 10-point edge heading into the final frame.
There Mooney hit two 3-pointers and scored eight points to help Norwood pull away for the win.
Mooney scored a team-high 13 points; Gunter had 11 points; both Default and Drake scored eight points; Chambers had four points; and Wright had three points.
In the semifinals, the Lady Pirates fell to a solid Sparta team that recently won the Walnut Grove Tournament. The final score was 48-28.
(No statistics were made available by press time.)
