By GRAHAM POWELL
Leader sportswriter
A late run from Paragould in the fourth quarter wasn’t enough to make a comeback against Cabot as the Lady Panthers handed the Lady Rams their first loss of the season, winning 45-37 Tuesday at Panther Arena.
Cabot (4-1) played sound fundamental basketball at both ends of the court in the first half, and led 27-13 at the break. Paragould (2-1) cut the deficit to 12 entering the fourth quarter, and opened the final quarter with an 8-0 scoring run to cut the Lady Panthers’ lead to four.
Senior point guard Jaylin Bridges picked up her fourth foul late in the third quarter and had to sit a large portion of the fourth, which put the Lady Panthers at a disadvantage. Fellow seniors Ally Van Enk and Elliot Taylor picked up the slack in Bridges absence and helped Cabot grind out the hard-fought win.
“It was interesting,” said Cabot coach Carla Crowder about the fourth quarter. “We just missed a lot of easy shots and free throws that we need to make, and we normally do. We’ve got to make those, but Paragould’s a very good team.”
Cabot’s lone loss of the season came against Conway last week. In that game, the Lady Panthers stayed within two points of the Lady Cats until the 2:30 mark of the third quarter. From that point on, Conway dominated Cabot on its way to a 90-64 win. Paragould beat Conway by 10 points earlier this season.
The Lady Panthers led 11-8 at the end of the first quarter. In the second, Van Enk scored the first four points of the quarter to push the Cabot lead to seven. Paragould made only one field goal in the second quarter, its other three points came at the free throw line.
With 24 seconds left in the half, Cabot made the score 27-13 on a Taylor bucket inside the paint. Bridges picked up an assist on the play with a perfectly-placed pass from the perimeter. Bridges’ pass sailed over the defender and Taylor received the pass next to the rim, which led to the easy bucket.
Cabot cooled down offensively in the second half and Paragould outscored the Lady Panthers 10-8 in the third quarter, but it wasn’t enough to cut the lead to single digits as the Lady Rams trailed 35-23 at the start of the fourth.
“I think we just executed and we played great defense in the first half,” Crowder said. “Then we kind of started to slip in the second half. We had to do some different things. We got in foul trouble, and so we couldn’t do exactly what we wanted to do.”
Bridges left the court with 1:19 left in the third after picking up her fourth foul. Paragould took advantage of that in the fourth as Lady Rams senior point guard Carson Gill led a 6-0 run before Bridges re-entered the game about midway through the quarter.
The Lady Rams scored the next basket to cut the Lady Panther lead to four, but Cabot pushed it back to six on a pair of free throws by Taylor with 3:44 to play. Paragould was able to cut the deficit to four again on a basket by senior forward Sydney Layrock with 50 seconds left on the clock, but that was as close as the Lady Rams would get.
Paragould was forced to foul and hope Cabot would miss its free throws down the stretch, but it was to no avail. Taylor drained another pair of free throws with nine seconds left to set the final score.
“We’re used to her being out some,” Crowder said of Bridges’ foul trouble, “but we love her being on the floor. I was real proud of how we finished. We came back and really finished strong at the end.”
Cabot won the rebounding battle with 25 boards to Paragould’s 19. The Lady Panthers also had one fewer turnover in the game with 15. The Lady Rams committed only four turnovers in the second half, and only one in the fourth quarter. Neither team made a three pointer in the game. Paragould did finish with a better percentage at the free throw line. The Lady Rams made 84.6 percent of their free throws compared to Cabot’s 57.6 percent.
Van Enk led the Lady Panthers with a game-high 16 points and finished a rebound shy of a double-double with nine boards. Taylor added 11 points and four assists, and Bridges scored eight points and collected five assists.
Gill led Paragould with 14 points, eight of which came in the fourth quarter, and Layrock scored 10 points and had nine rebounds.
Cabot played Jacksonville yesterday at home and will play again on Tuesday in the second annual Cabot Pre-Holiday Tournament against Pulaski Academy at 8:30 p.m.
