By RAY BENTON
Leader sports editor
The Jacksonville Lady Red Devils’ defense kept it close, but their shooting betrayed them in a 55-45 loss at North Little Rock on Tuesday. Jacksonville forced 24 turnovers and took 14 more shots from the floor than their victorious hosts, but made just 17 of 52 shot attempts, including an abysmal 1 of 17 from three-point range. The Lady Devils were also 9 of 22 from the free-throw line while North Little Rock hit 16 of 21.
“It wasn’t the prettiest thing in the world but we got a win against a really good team,” North Little Rock coach Daryl Fimple said. “That’s the first time we’ve out-rebounded our opponent this year. That’s something we’ve really been stressing so it was good to see that happen. We just have to take better care of the basketball. You’re not going to win a whole lot of games where you turn it over 24 times.”
The Charging Lady Wildcats were on the brink of blowing it open in the third quarter. After leading 31-25 at halftime, North Little Rock opened the second half with an 8-0 run for a 39-25 lead 2:30 into the third quarter.
Jacksonville’s first bucket came at the 4:40 mark to make it 39-27, but the Lady Wildcats went on a 6-2 run to take a commanding 45-29 lead with two minutes left in the third.
Jacksonville finally pulled things together and closed the period with a 7-0 run to make it 45-36 heading into the final period of play.
North Little Rock led 49-35 with 3:55 left in the game, but Jacksonville scored eight in a row to make it 49-43 with 2:10 on the clock. Fimple called his last timeout to regroup his team. Jacksonville came out of the break fouling, but the Lady Wildcats made their free throws down the stretch to secure the victory.
After the game, Jacksonville coach Katrina Mimms noted her team’s obvious shortcoming.
“We just have to knock down open shots,” Mimms said. “Everybody’s going to be all over Jessica (Jackson) and everybody’s going to have a man on Shakyla (Hill). That means we’re going to have other people wide open for shots. KeKe (Alcorn) didn’t make anything tonight and that’s unfortunate because she’s been shooting it really well in practice. We’re going to have to have some of those shots fall if we want to be able to loosen up those defenses. And I think we will see those fall. We’ve been seeing them fall in practice. We just have to take it to game time.”
Post player Kiara Webb led all players in two categories. She finished with 19 points and 15 rebounds. Malica Monk scored 16 for North Little Rock while Jasmin Mays added 12.
“Mays, again, is our unsung hero,” Fimple said. “She had to guard the best player in the state by herself. She still had a few points, but she didn’t do like she’s done in some other games.”
Jackson, who verbally committed to the University of Arkansas in October, led Jacksonville with 17 points and 14 rebounds. She was the only Lady Devil in double figures in either category, though she was 0 for 5 from three-point range.
The Lady Red Devils played at Cabot on Friday. Look for details of that game in Wednesday’s edition of The Leader. They also host Mount St. Mary’s on Tuesday. The Lady Wildcats get back to action on Monday in the Wampus Cat Invitational at Conway.
