By RAY BENTON
Leader sports editor
The Bank Classic is over, and Searcy has two new shiny trophies after the boys and girls teams won their respective tournament championship games Saturday night at Searcy High School. The boys took a dominating win over Lonoke 51-35, while the girls came back from an 11-point deficit with 3:43 remaining to tie the game in regulation, and take a 67-65 victory over J.A. Fair of Little Rock.
The Lady Lions’ game winner came on a spectacular eight-foot running jumper by Kayla Medley. Even more spectacular than that was what it took for the Searcy girls to get to that point. Stellar defense, clutch shooting and a little help from an abysmal night at the line by the Lady War Eagles, added up to the Lady Lions’ improbable late comeback.
Fair hit just 18 of 32 free throws in the game, and missed five straight in the fourth quarter to help Searcy climb back into the game. Searcy senior Kallie Bartee hit two foul shots with seconds remaining to tie the game and send it into overtime.
Medley finished with a team-high 21 points for Searcy. Bartee added 19, 17 of which came in the second half. Kristen Worlow added eight points and led the team with 11 rebounds. Fair’s Vasha Sanders led all scorers with 33 points.
The Searcy boys scored the first 13 points of their title matchup with the Jackrabbits, and were scarcely challenged the rest of the night. Lonoke pulled to within 17-14 with 3:30 left in the first half, but Searcy scored the next seven points to make it a 10-point game. Lonoke’s #35 hit a three at the buzzer to cut the deficit to seven by halftime. That’s as close as the Jackrabbits would get the rest of the way.
Searcy scored first in the third quarter to make it 26-17, and Lonoke got no closer than eight points off the lead after that. They did get to within eight several times, the latest coming at 43-35 with 2:43 remaining in the game, but the Lions again went on a run and scored the final eight points of the game to set the final margin.
Brian McGrath led all scorers with 14 points while Levi Dixon and Matt Cramblett added 12 apiece. Cody Wilmath hit three three-pointers to chip in nine points. Lonoke was led by #35, who scored seven points. Three other Jackrabbits finished with six. The game was played cleanly. The two teams combined for just 11 free throws. Searcy hit five of six while Lonoke made three of five. The win lifts the Lions to 6-1 on the year while Lonoke fell to 4-3.
