By RAY BENTON
Leader sports editor
The Cabot Lady Panther basketball team won the Cabot Pre-Holiday Classic Saturday by defeating Jonesboro by a score of 42-31.
The final game was between the winners of the two pools of three in which two games were played. Cabot had defeated Searcy and Magnolia to get to the final. Jonesboro had defeated Little Rock McClellan and Beebe.
“I thought we played really, really well first quarter, then we got kind of lethargic in the second quarter,” said Cabot coach Carla Crowder. “We came back and had a really good third quarter. I thought we played really solid defense. We got to play quite a few people, so that’s a good thing for us. We’ve been doing a really good job of shooting free throws down the stretch. We came through and did it again tonight, so we were pleased with that.”
Cabot completely controlled the first quarter, outscoring the Lady Hurricanes 12-2. The Lady Panther defense forced a 5-second call and then a 10-second backcourt call at the very beginning of the period to set the tone. Jonesboro turned the ball over eight additional times as well in the quarter.
Josie VanOss started the Cabot scoring with a 2-pointer and one of two free throws. Camryn Harmon had an offensive rebound and putback, Holley Allen a two, and Lesley Roberts scored a two-point basket before the Lady Canes were able to score. VanOss hit a 3-point basket after a steal by Harmon for the 12-2 score at the end of one period.
Kayla Mitchell scored four consecutive points toward the start of the second quarter for Jonesboro. Allen responded for Cabot by picking off a Lady Cane in-bounds pass and taking it the distance for the layup. Jonesboro then scored nine straight points to cut the lead to 16-15. VanOss countered with a free throw and a 2-pointer under the basket on an assist by Allen. Mitchell scored on a driving layup at the buzzer for the Lady Canes, and the score at intermission was 19-17 in favor of the Lady Panthers.
The third period was low scoring as Jonesboro could only manage two 2-point baskets. Kenzie Wagner scored five points for Cabot and Roberts had a 2-point basket to start the quarter. The score was 26-21 at the end of three.
The Lady Canes pulled within three at 29-26 in the final quarter. Wagner was fouled and made the front end of a one-and-one. An offensive rebound on the second gave Cabot the ball. VanOss was charged with a foul on the offensive end, only to have the call overruled and VanOss went to the line instead and made both ends of a one-and-one for a 32-26 advantage.
A reverse layup by Destiny Salary and a free throw by Mitchell cut the lead back to three points, but Jonesboro began to foul, and VanOss hit eight free throws and Roberts two while the Lady Canes were only able to score once to set the final score at 42-31. VanOss was 12 of 15 from the free throw line for the game, ten of those in the fourth period.
VanOss had 23 points to lead the Lady Panthers in scoring. Wagner had seven points, while Roberts was next with six.
Salary led Jonesboro with 13 points, and Mitchell had seven points.
