Lady Mustangs staying close in league
By Donna Lampkin Stephens / Correspondent
Thursday, February 4, 2010 12:13 PM CST
With 1:07 left in the third quarter last week, Central Arkansas Christian’s Lady Mustangs trailed the defending state champion by one point.
Although Vilonia went on to hold serve at home, 44-39, Steve Quattlebaum’s Lady Mustangs learned something that should serve them well over the rest of the season.
They are right there with the top-ranked Lady Eagles.
“I thought we had a good chance of beating them,” Quattlebaum said. “If we just could’ve converted on a couple of trips down the floor after we got a few stops. But I was proud; I thought they competed pretty hard. We also could’ve gotten beat bad, but especially in the second half, we competed well.”
Vilonia improved to 18-1 overall and remained unbeaten in 5A-West play. CAC is 13-8 and 5-2.
The Lady Mustangs ended the first half of the conference round-robin schedule, with a 51-31 victory at home over Greenwood Tuesday night.
The Lady Mustangs will start the second half of the league schedule when Siloam Springs visits Mustang Mountain on Friday. Siloam Springs prevailed in the first meeting, 87-56. CAC will travel to Morrilton on Tuesday, Feb. 9. The Lady Mustangs won that one the first time around, 63-19.
Vilonia pulled the upset at Siloam Springs in the first round.
“I really think Siloam’s better,” Quattlebaum said. “I’m not sure, though, that Vilonia is not harder to beat in some ways. They make very few mistakes, play really good defense and don’t give you much.”
At Vilonia, the smaller Lady Mustangs had a hard time inside with Catherine Puckett, who worked her size advantage for a 13-point night. At 6:45 of the first quarter, CAC led by 4-2 on a Haley Hatcher layup and two free throws by Shelby Tankersley, but the Lady Mustangs didn’t score again until Gracie Frizzell’s pull-up jumper with 1:03 left in the period. They swiped a few turnovers but were unable to convert offensively, and Vilonia led after the first quarter, 12-6.
CAC pulled within 18-15 with 3:12 left before halftime after Larkin Hatcher banked in a 3, Frizzell converted a three-point play and Tankersley hit another free throw. But the Lady Mustangs again went dry offensively, not scoring again until 6:54 of the third quarter. Meanwhile, Vilonia reeled off the last five points of the half to lead, 23-15.
But Vilonia hit a scoring drought in the third quarter. Kiristen Camper scored inside to start the period for CAC, but after a free throw at 5:46 put the Lady Eagles up by 26-17, CAC reeled off eight straight, and Vilonia didn’t score again until 1:40 on Puckett’s inside bucket. Tankersley, Taylor Evans and Frizzell pulled CAC within 26-25 before Puckett’s last basket. Tankersley and Frizzell combined to make two of four free throws to make the difference 28-27. The Lady Eagles, though, drained a 3 at the buzzer to lift their advantage to 31-27 entering the fourth quarter.
But CAC suffered the final drought. The Lady Mustangs didn’t score again until more than four minutes of the fourth quarter were gone, spotting Vilonia a five-point run, 36-27. After a Haley Hatcher trey and a pair of Frizzell free throws, the Lady Mustangs pulled within 37-34, but turnovers hurt their effort, and Vilonia made seven of eight free throws down the stretch to seal the win.
Quattlebaum pronounced it “one of our better defensive and rebounding games of the year.”
“I think we ended up outrebounding them, and we’ve struggled with that in a lot of games,” he said. “We missed a couple of 3s that we’d been making. Katie Pennington has been pretty solid. Maybe we’ll get them next time.”
Frizzell led with 15 points.
Having finished road trips to the two top teams in the conference, Quattlebaum seemed optimistic about the second half of the schedule.
“Greenwood will be our only long trip,” he said, referring to the other team among the league’s top four at this point. “Greenbrier will be tough there.
“But we’re making some progress, getting a little better. We’re close. We had a chance. I feel good about getting (Vilonia) at our place. I feel pretty good about finishing pretty strong and making a pretty good run in the state tournament.”
