By ANN THARP Special to The Leader
The Beebe Lady Badgers kept their streak of allowing fewer than 40 points alive last Friday, and this time it was for a tournament championship.
The Lady Badgers defeated the Little Rock Christian Academy Lady Warriors 47-38 Friday night in the championship game of the Beebe Christmas Classic.
The last time a team scored 40 or more points against the Beebe ladies was Dec. 3.
Friday’s game was close until the very end, and was tied midway through the fourth quarter. The Lady Badgers pulled away and sealed the game with free throws.
Harding Academy defeated Riverview to take third place in the tournament. Beebe (10-4) had defeated Blytheville and Riverview to reach the finals. LRCA (9-4) had defeated Searcy and Harding Academy.
“I’m very proud of them,” Beebe coach Greg Richey said. “They had a really good tournament. It’s been three years since we’ve won it. They wanted to win it. I was really proud of them and really happy for them that they were able to. I thought this was our best game we’ve played all year. They stayed under control and played as good a team ball as we’ve played all year. That’s what you want when you play the first half. You want to try to get to that point before you go into your conference season, and I thought that they really did that tonight.”
Allie Lane scored the first two for the Lady Badgers, followed by a 3-point basket from the corner by Marianna Richey.
Reagan Bradley answered with a 3-pointer for the Lady Warriors, and Veronica Best had a rebound put-back for a 9-5 Little Rock Christian advantage. Shea Holland made a lay-up, and Libbie Hill two free throws for Beebe to tie the game at 9-9 at the end of one quarter of play.
Hannah Camp scored the first five Lady Badger points of the second frame. Katherine Garcia had an old-fashioned 3-point play, and Richey a pair of free throws to close out the scoring for the half and to take a 20-16 lead into the locker room.
Aspyn Satterwhite hit consecutive 3-pointers for the Lady Warriors to tie the game at the start of the third period. Garcia scored twice, and Hill converted the old-fashioned 3-point play on a baseline in-bounds play as a response.
Hill also had a steal and score lay-up, a free throw, and scored on a drive to the basket in the quarter. Both teams scored 12 points in the frame, so the lead remained four at the end of three.
Hill scored ten points in the final period, including two driving lay-ups and 6 of 9 from the free throw stripe. Richey also had a steal and score and was 3 of 4 from the line. Little Rock Christian began a full court press and tied the game at 36-36, but did not score again until the last basket of the game. Beebe scored 11 of its 15 fourth quarter points from that point to set the final score of 47-38.
Hannah McGhee had several offensive rebounds in the game, especially one from a missed second free throw late in the game to retain possession for the Lady Badgers.
Hill led Beebe in scoring with 20 points. Richey had 10 points, and Garcia added seven. Bradley had 12 points, and Satterwhite 10 for LRCA.
