JASPER, Tenn. – The mixture of an all-state post and a backcourt that got hot from behind the arc in the second half was too much for the Marion County girls’ basketball team to overcome Saturday night.
The Lady Warriors, who had battled Clarkrange well into the fourth quarter, countering every scoring run by the visitors with one of their own, finally wore down in the final five minutes, falling 73-58 in a Class A sectional.
“We gave outstanding effort,” Lady Warriors coach Randy Ellis said. “We never quit, right up until the final seconds but when they’ve got the combination of their post and their outside game going like they did in the second half, they’re just really tough to defend.”
Clarkrange’s 6-foot-4 all-stater Kara Meadows was unstoppable at times, helping the Lady Buffaloes (25-10) build a 10-point lead less than a minute into the second quarter. Meadows scored 13 straight points during one second-quarter stretch and 15 of her team’s last 17 before halftime. The Middle Tennessee State University signee finished with a game-high 29 points and 11 rebounds.
“Every time I get the ball near the basket I’m confident that I’m going to score,” Meadows said. “I know it’s my job to put the ball in the hole, but I also have confidence in the rest of my team that when they’re open and I pass it back out, they’re going to hit their shots, too.”