Third time still the charm

The McAuley Lady Warrior Classic will be an all Big 8 final as East Newton punched its ticket to the title game with a 45-38 victory Thursday night over Pierce City.

This victory was the third of the season for East Newton over Pierce City, and this was perhaps the hardest one to earn.

Pierce City dominated the game in the first half and still held a slim lead going into the final quarter. East Newton rallied and pulled out the victory and made the finals of the tournament.

“Pierce City played hard and I knew they would,” East Newton coach Rusty McDermott said. “They are a hard-nosed team and they compete well. They have lost to us two times and they didn’t want to lose again. They came out hungry and we didn’t match that intensity until the second half.”

The Lady Eagles jumped ahead 14-6 after the first quarter and started to pull away in the second quarter.

A basket by Emily Ashley two minutes into the second quarter gave the Lady Eagles (10-9) a double digit lead, 18-8, at the time. The teams traded baskets and with five minutes to play, Pierce City was up 20-10.

The teams traded 6-0 runs over the final four minutes of the first half, but Pierce City led 26-16 at halftime.

Whatever pep talk  McDermott gave at halftime worked, as the Lady Patriots (10-8) allowed 18 points in the second half — only five in the third quarter.

East Newton got within four points on two occasions in the third quarter and cut it down to a possession, 29-26, after a basket by Katy Cooper. Pierce City answered when Megan Golubski hit a jumper with about a minute and a half left in the quarter.

That shot kept Pierce City in the lead until the end of the quarter, but a basket and two free throws by Cooper, made it 31-30, going into the fourth quarter.

East Newton got the game tied at 31-31 on a free throw by Raeshele Dollar.

That was the start of a back-and-forth stretch early in the fourth quarter. During that time, neither was able to pull away and ultimately East Newton grabbed the lead.

Pierce City’s Golubski hit two free throws to break the tie, making 33-31. Cooper then scored to tie the game with six minutes to play.

Golubski struck again this time, hitting a 3-pointer with 4:40 left, making it 36-33.

Lindsey Bragg scored back-to-back baskets and the latter, with 3:44 left in the game, gave East Newton its first lead of the game, at 37-36.

Cooper then added a layup after grabbing an offensive rebound, making it 39-36. Prior to Cooper’s shot, East Newton had missed three straight shots.

The Lady Eagles got back within a point, 39-38, with 2:32 left on a basket by Taylor Mettlach. That was the last points that Pierce City scored in the game.

East Newton iced the game by hitting 5-of-8 free throws in the final two minutes to lock up its third win over Pierce City.

In the previous meetings, East Newton won 49-35 on Dec. 15 and then 33-21 in the Neosho Holiday Classic on Dec. 31.

Cooper finished with a game-high 21 points, while Bragg tallied 12 points.

“It was a really good win,” Cooper said. “Coach chewed our butt and got us settled down and thinking about the game, instead of having our heads off in the clouds or wherever they were.”
Golubski had 12 points, while Mettlach had 10 points.

East Newton now advances to face Seneca at 6 p.m. Saturday in the championship game of the tournament.

The two teams met on Jan. 21 and Seneca prevailed 55-44.