Lady 'Cats unable to keep double-digit lead; end season in sectionals

MCDERMOTT — The Whiteoak Lady Wildcats looked to be a team on a one-way mission to advance in the sectional round of the Division IV SE District girls basketball tournament Wednesday night by the looks of how things went for them in the first frame.

WHS (5-18) outscored the Clay Lady Panthers by 16 points in the first eight minutes of the game, but that double-digit lead wasn’t enough for the Lady ’Cats, eventually losing that advantage in the second frame, then seeing their season come to a close by a 55-52 score at Northwest High School in the sectional semifinals.

Not much went wrong for the Lady ’Cats in the opening eight minutes of their game against Clay, who was the home team on the scoreboard, as the Lady ’Cats not only outscored Clay, 20-4 in the opening frame, but began the postseason contest with a 12-0 run less than four minutes into the game.

“We scouted them and watched film, and we knew they were a good team,” WHS head coach Randy Abbott said. “We told our kids we have to close out on them, and they like to shoot the three, and they did that against us.

“We let them get away from us, but our girls played hard.”

That opening run consisted of points from Michaela Luman, Lexi Jones, Emma Wardlow and Ashleigh Harless with a mix of jumpers, free throws and points in the paint for the 12-point advantage with 4:51 left in the opening quarter.

It wasn’t until the 3:14 mark of the first quarter when Clay added one point via free throw, only to see Wardlow sink a 3-pointer at the 2:47 mark of the frame for a 15-1 advantage. Later, the Lady Panthers scored three straight points, only to see Wardlow, again, answer with a layup at the 1:32 mark of the quarter, followed by a three-point play by Maggie Carr to give WHS a lead of 20-4 to conclude the first-quarter scoring.

As great as the first quarter was for the Lady ’Cats, the second quarter was not as fun for the visitors on the scoreboard. WHS was outscored, 25-5 in the second quarter as Clay changed their style of play to taking advantage of the outside shots given to them by the Lady ’Cats defense, with Clay sinking six 3-pointers in the second for what turned into a 29-25 deficit at halftime for Whiteoak.

For Clay in the second quarter, Cam Delotell made three treys, Jensen Warnock sank two and Regan Osborn made one of those aforementioned 3-pointers, with just those baskets equaling 18 of the 25 points they scored in the second frame.

Clay took away the double-digit lead built by WHS with 2:47 left in the second off one of the 3-pointers by Delotell to make the score 22-21, as WHS didn’t regain the lead again until there was 2:24 left in the third quarter when Wardlow scored two points on a layup for a 36-35 lead.

Wardlow led WHS with 24 points.

In that third frame where WHS rallied to take back the lead, Wardlow made a 3-pointer before the go-ahead layup to help bring the Lady ’Cats back into the swing of scoring. In fact, Wardlow eventually scored seven consecutive points, adding a layup off a steal at half court, followed by a fast break.

WHS held the lead by a 41-38 margin once time expired off the third-quarter clock, with Wardlow breaking what was a 38-38 tied score (Clay made another 3-pointer) when she converted a three-point play with 34 seconds remaining in the quarter.

Whiteoak continued to hold onto the lead throughout most of the fourth frame, with the two teams equaling baskets throughout the quarter, but with 1:08 left in regulation, Clay’s Delotell came up clutch once again, this time making her fifth 3-pointer to tie the game at 50-50. Later, she made it a three-point lead for Clay with her seventh 3-pointer of the game with 28 seconds on the clock.

The Lady ’Cats tried to make one last comeback with a put-back basket by Carr, but WHS was unable to get any closer with those two points being their final points scored of the season. Carr finished with 13 points.

WHS had three seniors play their final game in Emma Wardlow, Ashleigh Harless and Michaela Luman.

“Our seniors will be tough to replace,” Abbott said. “They are good kids, and we’ll miss them.”