The South Iron Girls Varsity Basketball team ran the table in the 36th Annual Lady Rebels Christmas Tournament and made some history over the Holiday break. Their three straight victories, all in convincing fashion, earned them the Championship trophy for the first time in school history.
The opening game of the tourney was against a rebuilding Arcadia Valley team, and South Iron’s dominance couldn’t be understated as they cut through their opponent like a hot knife through butter. The Panthers hung 20 on them in the first quarter, allowed just four and then went into the half with a sizable 37-8 lead.
The second half wouldn’t be any kinder to AV as South Iron won the third quarter 20-10 before slamming the door with a 14-2 fourth that culminated in a 71-20 win. Head Coach Lawrence Graves had this to say about his team’s performance, “We played really well. All six of our rotation players scored eight or more points. That kind of balance is hard to guard. As reflected in the box score, our defense was really good too.”
Anna Parker led the way with 18 points, hitting five of six from three-point land and Enzley Dinkins racked up a double-double with 11 points and ten rebounds. But Maddie Ayers stole the show in this one with seven assists, six rebounds, eight steals and 17 points, one of which was her 1,000th career point. Quite the notable milestone, and she did it in style with a three-pointer in the first quarter.
A humble Ayers spoke to her team’s success in the tournament, saying, “Winning the Christmas tournament for the first time was exciting. I thought our team played hard and were focused. Winning this tournament was one of our goals this year and it’s nice to accomplish that goal.”
The second game pitted the Panthers against Potosi, and while it wasn’t the level of sheer dominance they displayed in the opening game, they still bested the Trojans 59-47. A 13-5 first quarter set the tone, but the second was much tighter as the Panthers narrowly won it 18-15. The third was where they pulled away though, going up 21-8, but they needed it as they took their foot off the gas in the fourth and Potosi won the frame 17-9. Fortunately, they were able to keep the comeback small enough to earn themselves a trip to the finals.
Allecia Cornell paced the scoring with 17 points, while Parker had 11 and Drew Gayle and Dinkins each had nine. Ayers was the distributor with a team-high eight assists and also had six steals, and Megan Lashley led the Panthers with seven rebounds.
Coach Graves commented on the game saying, “We knew coming into this game Potosi was a dangerous team. They match up really well with us and have really strong guard play. This was one of those games if our defense wasn’t up to par and they shot the ball well (or we did not), we knew they could beat us. The girls executed the gameplay perfectly to allow us to advance to the championship game of the Christmas tournament for only the third time in program history.”
In the final round South Iron matched up against a very tough Steelville team and would need to be on their toes. Coach Graves spoke to the difficulty of the opponent and a quick turnaround from the previous round. “Steelville was a difficult team to prepare for. Their defensive style is pretty unique, and due to the nature of the tournament, we didn’t have a great deal of time to prepare for it.”
The Panthers didn’t seem phased though, as they went up 17-7 after the opening quarter and then closed out the half with a 13-9 frame for a 30-16 lead going into the break. They came out of the locker room hot and went up another five points with an 18-13 third quarter, before fending off a Steelville assault in the fourth. They were outscored 19-14 in the final eight minutes, but held on for the 62-48 victory and their first Christmas Tournament Championship.
Ayers led the way again with 21 points and hit six of nine FGs with one from beyond the arc, while Dinkins and Parker each had 13, totaling most of the damage for the Panthers. Dinkins was the leader on the boards with seven.
Coach Graves had high praise for his girls when speaking to their effort and execution, saying, “Offensively, we just gave our girls some concepts to focus on and they did a great job of implementing them throughout the game. I felt like we got a lot of really good looks at the basket, most of which were right at the rim. We also felt that Steelville could give us some problems because of their size. They were big and long and for us to have a shot at winning, we were going to have to rebound really well. I’m really proud of our efforts on the glass. We made up for our lack of size with a lot of grit and hard work.”
Dinkins beamed when commenting on the first tournament championship, quipping, “I think the keys that helped us win it all, was our defense and our effort. We kept our heads up, played hard and hustled for the ball. We also played as a team and focused on doing the little things right.”
Seems like the Panthers did just about everything right. They have every reason to be proud and confident rolling into the second half of the season, and the odds seem pretty favorable that they will continue to impress their fans and frustrate their competition.
Congrats!
