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Lady Lions roar back, stun Naylor
POPLAR BLUFF, Mo. -- Naylor simply ran out of gas Tuesday night in the MSHSAA Class 1 sectional playoff.
The Lady Eagles didn't score over the final 4 minutes as Bakersfield scored the final 10 points to rally for a 47-44 win at Peters Gym.
"The girls played hard," Naylor coach Gene Deckard said. "Once you run out of conditioning you make some bad choices and I believe we made some bad passes because we were tired."
The Lady Lions (16-6) had five steals to help rally from a seven-point deficit in the fourth quarter after overcoming a double-digit hole in the third by scoring 12 straight points.
Bakersfield, which returns to Poplar Bluff for the quarterfinal Saturday against Delta, knocked off their second straight ranked opponent after beating No. 4 Lesterville in the District 2 final.
The eighth-ranked Lady Eagles finished the season 18-9 but hadn't played since Feb. 24, having won the District 1 title by forfeit.
"These girls have a lot of heart and they know when to do it when it's on the line," Bakersfield coach Tesa Nelson said. "They came through and made big plays. I've got a good group of girls."
Naylor took a 44-37 lead on Moriah Goodrum's bucket with 4:08 left, but it ended up being the Lady Eagles final score of the season.
Brooke Lair quickly answered for Bakersfield and later got a steal and an offensive rebound leading to Emma French's layin off a lob pass. Another steal by Lair led to a free throw that cut Naylor's lead to two and the Lady Lions tied the game at 44-44 on Lia Fienhold's layin off a steal of an inbound pass with 2:36 left.
After the teams traded misses, including a one-and-one opportunity by Bakersfield, a jump ball went to Naylor under the Lady Eagles' own basket with 1:53 remaining.
The inbound pass toward midcourt got past everybody and rolled toward the other end. Naylor's Katelyn Hughey and Bakersfield's Stephaney Kasinger gave chase but slid past the ball and the Lady Lions ended up with possession. A quick pass to French all alone under the basket put Bakersfield up 46-44 with 1:45 to go.
"A miscommunication," Deckard said of the play. "Nobody moved and got open. The fourth quarter we didn't even get back (on defense). We gave up some easy buckets."
After the Lady Eagles missed two free throws, Bakersfield's Martika Wages hit 1-of-2 with 1:18 to go for a three-point lead. Naylor missed on the ensuing possession but Goodrum forced a turnover by tipping a pass off a Bakersfield player with 45 seconds left. Naylor missed a 3, got a jump ball back and traded turnovers to get one final shot before the buzzer, missing twice in the final 14 seconds.
The Lady Eagles hit just 7-of-30 shots from the field in the second half after taking a 26-20 lead into halftime.
"In the third quarter I don't know how many easy shots, but we just didn't finish," Deckard said. "We had good looks, just didn't finish it."
Naylor opened the second half with an 8-3 run starting with a 3 by Cheyenne Ragsdale, who finished with a game-high 20 points. The senior ended the run with a jumper at the 5:50 mark to put the Lady Eagles up 34-23.
However, Naylor didn't score again over the next 4:10 as Bakersfield scored 12 straight, taking a 35-34 lead on Kasinger's three-point play with 1:56 left.
Ragsdale quickly answered in the paint and Naylor finished the quarter with a 6-0 run ending with a steal by Courtney Sullivan and Cheyenne Hollowell's layin off a pass from Goodrum.
Naylor led 40-35 at the start of the fourth but neither team scored over the first 3 minutes before the teams traded putbacks and Goodrum gave the Lady Eagles a seven-point lead.
"I've got a good group of girls," Nelson said. "They just play their hearts out. As long as they continue to do that, we're going to go places."
Bakersfield won the District 2 title as the third seed but trailed 8-2 after Naylor opened with 3s by Goodrum and Sullivan. The Lady Lions roared back to take the lead but trailed 19-13 after one quarter.
Naylor forced six straight turnovers to start the second as Bakersfield didn't score until the 4:40 mark, but the Lady Eagles didn't pad their lead more than eight, missing four shots and turning the ball over twice. Ragsdale's fastbreak layin with 2:05 left in the half gave Naylor a 25-15 lead but Kasinger answered with a 3 and Lair got a steal and set up French's bucket to pull within five.
Kasinger led Bakersfield with 16 points while French added 14 and Lair eight wearing her uncle's old-school shoes from when he played in high school.
Naylor's 1-3-1 zone forced 20 turnovers but Bakersfield ended the game with a 24-10 run.
"We left seams open," Deckard said of the defense in the second half.
Ragsdale and Goodrum combined for 35 of Naylor's 44 points and the Lady Eagles had just seven dressed for the game due to injuries.
Nelson said fatigue was also a factor for her team because of the longer floor at Peters Gym. The coach told her players before the game that it was the same size as the one back home.
"The lines are the same," she added. "It just looks different."