Trailing by 10 with 7:37 left in regulation, the Arabia Mountain Lady Rams put together a furious comeback to pick up a 65-60 Region 6-4A girls’ overtime victory over the visiting Stephenson Lady Jaguars on Tuesday night.
Sabrina Russell rebounded her own miss with 7:37 to play and put it up and in to give Stephenson (5-4, 1-1) a 47-37 lead before the Rams began to rally behind Sierra Burns.
Burns went on to score nine fourth-quarter points, including a pair of free throws with 2:06 remaining to give Arabia (7-2, 2-0) its first lead since the 6:24 mark (16-15) of the second quarter.
Stephenson tied the game with 1:50 to play on a bucket by Zoey McMickens that eventually sent the rivals into the overtime period.
Arabia Mountain worked the clock down under five seconds, but a shot was no good and Stephenson had the ball with 1.5 seconds remaining in regulation. The Jaguars passed the ball up the court where it was tipped and went out of bounds as the fourth quarter came to an end.
Burns struck again for the Rams as Aliyah Ishmaaeel found her teammate wide open in the right corner. Burns caught the pass and hit nothing but net on a three-pointer to give her team the lead for good with 3:38 to play in the overtime.
Myori Pruitt hit a pair of free throws to push the lead out to 61-56 with 2:23 left in the game. McMickens answered with a basket on the other end to keep Stephenson within striking distance.
Arabia’s Malaya Jones all but sealed the game with a pull up along the baseline to make it a five-point margin (63-58) with 2:00 left on the clock.
One free throw each by Taj Hunter and Blezzy Abong closed the gap back to 63-60 with 55 seconds to play and Arabia went back to its keep away offense and forced Stephenson to foul with 20 seconds to play.
Pruitt went to the line and sank both free throws to put the final touches on the victory.
Stephenson had taken the lead late in the first half as Abong sank a pair of threes and Finkley followed with an offensive put back at the halftime buzzer for a 30-24 lead for the Jaguars.
Both teams had four players in double figures on the night led by Arabia’s Sierra Burns (21 points, 12 rebounds). Malaya Jones added 18 points for the Rams while Pruitt hit for 13 and Jah’Naesia Spears 11.
Stephenson was led by McMickens with 16, Abong with 14, Finkley with 13 and Sabrina Russell with 13 points and 9 rebounds.
(BOYS) Stephenson 55, Arabia Mountain 37
A 14-0 second half run by the Stephenson Jaguars fueled a 55-37 Region 6-4A victory on the road at Arabia Mountain on Tuesday night.
Arabia Mountain had just closed out an 11-0 run to pull within 31-28 as Korey Gribble’s second three and eighth point of the run settled into the basket with 4:16 to play.
It would the Rams last points for the final 4:16 of the third and the first 1:34 of the fourth quarter. Stephenson’s Camren Phelps had eight of the 14 points in the run by the Jaguars, including two three-pointers. The second three came with 7:15 to play in the fourth period to up the lead to 45-28 before Arabia’s Major Johnson ended the drought with a drive to the basket at the 6:36 mark.
Phelps, who finished with a game-high 18 points scored six more in the fourth quarter as the Jaguars continued to pull away.
Ashton Latimer completed a three-point play with 36 seconds left in the first quarter to tie the game at 9-9. Phelps hit a three to open the second quarter to give Stephenson the lead for good at 12-9.
Following a basket by Arabia’s Ramone Gibbs the Jaguars took control of the game with a 12-0 run that had five different players score. An offensive rebound and stick back Stephen Lewis ended the run with the Jaguars up 24-11 with 3:11 left in the first half.
Nasir Hargrove crashed the backboard on a teammate’s missed shot and finished with a dunk as the Jaguars went to the locker room up 29-17.
Camren Phelps finished the night with a game-high 19 points for the Jaguars and Nasir Hargrove hit for 11.. Gribble finished the game with 12 points to lead the rams.