DEFENSE CARRIES LADY BEARCATS INTO FINALS

For the second time in the tournament, the Booneville Lady Bearcats used defensive pressure to run away from Western Yell County in the semifinal round of the Booneville Invitational.

After a 26 steal game Tuesday, the Lady Bearcats took the ball away 19 times against the Lady Wolverines in a 54-32 win Thursday night.

The Lady Bearcats (4-0) will face DeQueen at 4 p.m. Saturday in the tournament finals. DeQueen has beaten Ozark and Acorn.

Thursday night the Lady Bearcats started fast behind Heaven Sanchez, who scored the game’s first four points and would score 12 of her team’s first 16.

Sanchez would finish with a team-high 17 on the night.

When Sanchez hit a 3 with 2:24 left in the opening quarter it was 16-8. A 3 by Brooklyn Turner at the buzzer made it a 19-point quarter and a nine-point lead.

Twice the lead grew to 11 in the second quarter – once on a basket by Joleigh Tate and again on a pair of Layla Byrum free throws – but the Lady Bearcats settled for a 30-22 lead at the break.

Besides her four points, Byrum swiped the ball three times in the opening quarter and would record nine first half rebounds.

On her way to a 12 point game, Tate started the second half scoring with a 3 but the Lady Bearcats didn’t score again for almost five and a half minutes.

Still, defense kept the Lady Wolverines at bay and it was back to a double digit lead at 38-28 when the quarter ended.

Tate started the fourth quarter with another 3 and the Lady Bearcats scored 16 unanswered to put the game away as Lexi Franklin had three fourth quarter steals.

Eight different Lady Bearcats contributed in the scoring including Franklin and Leigh Swint (shown) who both scored six.