By Todd Traub
Leader sports editor
If it were wrestling, the England girls would get points for a reversal.
As it is, they got the points they needed to overtake Beebe in a 61-55, semifinal victory in the Beebe Holiday Classic at Badger Arena on Wednesday.
England put together a run spanning the second and third quarters to erase a 13-point deficit and broke open a give-and-take second half to pull away to a 60-49 lead in the final minute.
“We’ve been down four or five times this year before,” England coach David Mackey said after his team qualified for Thursday’s final. “And I think just with that mentality, knowing that we were down last night against a very good Lonoke team. We were able to battle back.”
Beebe led 35-22 when leading scorer Jamie Jackson capped an 18-2 run with a turnaround jumper in the lane with 2:47 to go in the first half.
Leading scorer Janeka Watkins made a seemingly harmless free throw for England with 1:15 left, but the lone point started an 18-0 run that ended when Watkins made another free throw for the 40-35 lead with 4:42 left in the third quarter.
“I knew when we got it back in to five there before halftime we still had a little momentum even though it was halftime,” Mackey said. “It really helped us getting a little breather right there, our legs were getting a little weak.
“We’ve been down four or five times this year, double digits, down 15, 16 points and we’ve been able to pull it off so experience really helped us.”
Beebe committed six turnovers against the press during England’s run, and finally broke the spell when Jackson hit a layup to cut it to 40-37.
“We turned it over,” Beebe coach Lora Jackson said. “You can’t turn the ball over against teams like that. They’re going to score.”
Jamie Jackson made a three-pointer to tie it seconds later, and it was no more than a three-point game until England’s Jameka Watkins converted a three-point play for the 53-47 lead with 5:38 left in the game.
“I really emphasized when we were in at the half getting on the floor,” Mackey said. “We dove on the floor four or five times in the second half and really turned it up with our defensive effort on the front and backcourt there and I thought that was really a change for us.
“We turned it over because of their pressure but we also turned it over just to be turning it over,” Lora Jackson said.
A 7-2 run gave England (13-3) its biggest lead, but it may have been a long scoreless stretch that helped clinch it for the Lady Lions.
After grabbing a turnover with 4:04 left, England was able to hold the ball, missing free throws twice but getting the rebound, and ran the clock down to 2:20.
“I thought when they did match up man to man that we could take them off the dribble or go to the line and get a free throw,” Mackey said.
Another Beebe turnover on a jump ball gave England possession with 1:54 left. The Lady Lions failed to score and Jamie Jackson hit a layup for Beebe to cut it to 53-49 with 1:42 left.
But time was against the Lady Badgers as Janeka Watkins made a layup for England off a long outlet pass and added a free throw thanks to a foul by Shelbie Thomas.
A turnover led to Jasmine Taylor’s rebound and putback that made it 58-49, and Aria Dunbar hit a layup for the 60-49 lead, England’s biggest, with 56 seconds to go.
Jamie Jackson led Beebe with 30 points and Shaylin Young scored 11.
Janeka Watkins scored 25 points for England and Jameka Watkins and Dunbar had 16 each.
