PLEASANTON A 3-pointer by Marmaton Valley Highs Bailey Griffith with 3 minutes left broke a 27-27 deadlock and gave the Wildcats a lead they never relinquished down the stretch Tuesday.
Marmaton Valleys 34-29 win over host Pleasanton in the first round of Pleasantons midseason tournament sets up a rematch of a contest played two weeks prior. The Wildcats will take on Humboldt, which fended off a pesky Heritage Christian Academy, 46-36.
Tipoff is set for 4 p.m. Thursday at Pleasanton High Schools North Gymnasium, with the winner advancing to Fridays championship game.
The Wildcats led by as many as seven in the third quarter before Pleasanton pieced together an 11-3 run, capped by Emma Sabines 3-pointer with 5 minutes left in the game to give the Blu-Jays a 26-25 lead.
Alyson Ards basket with 3:45 left returned the advantage to the Wildcats before Bailey Myrick hit 1 of 2 charities for Pleasanton to knot the score, setting up Griffiths tie-breaker.
And Bailey doesnt shoot 3-pointers, Wildcat head coach Sherry Bagshaw said. Thats really not her game. But she hit a couple of huge ones for us. We needed it.
Ards steal and layup with 2 minutes left pushed the Wildcats up 32-27.
Megan Gillespie scored for Pleasanton to pare the deficit to three, but Griffith sealed the win with a pair of free throws with 22 seconds remaining.
Griffith led the way with 16 points, followed by Ard with 12.
All of the girls played well, she continued, while pointing out a pair of freshmen who had played sparingly at the varsity level before Tuesday.
Gracyn (Bracken) and Tayven (Sutton) really did a great job of handling their press, Bagshaw said. They stepped up. It really came down to our youth playing well. Our experienced players really helped our young players play well. We played well as a team. It was a great team effort.
Gillespie and Kori Umphenour shared high-scoring honors for the Blu-Jays with 9 apiece.
BOX SCORE
Marmaton Valley (10-5-8-1134) (FG/3pt): Griffith 3/2-4-0-16, Bracken 0-2-0-2, Sutton 0-2-1-2, M. Ard 1-0-2-2, Scharff 0-0-5-0, A. Ard 4-4-1-12. TOTALS: 8/2-12-10-34.
Pleasanton (6-4-9-1029) (FG/3pt): B. Umphenour 1-0-0-2, Myrick 0-1-4-1, George 1-0-2-2, Gillespie 3/1-0-4-9, Sabine 1/1-1-5-6, Ko. Umphenour 3-3-3-9. TOTALS: 9/2-5-18-29.
