Second-half surge lifts Lady Tigers past Malden

MALDEN — Trailing by six points at halftime in Tuesday's Class 2 girls sectional at Malden High School, the Neelyville Lady Tigers needed to switch gears if they were going to avoid the upset.

And the Lady Tigers did just that, limiting the host Malden Lady Wave to just five third-quarter points on the way to a 76-58 win and trip to the state quarterfinals.

So what did Neelyville coach Becky Hale tell her team at halftime?

“A little bit of everything,” Hale said. “(I told them) we were just going to have to get after rebounds. And also our defense was going to have to be a lot better. I think we were relying too much on scoring points instead of keeping them from scoring.”

The Lady Tigers (24-5) took Hale's advice to heart, limiting Malden to just two baskets and five points in a third period where they outscored the hosts 30-5.

Mynena Thornton's basket with 6:58 left in the third quarter staked the Lady Wave to a 36-30 lead, but that's when Neelyville came alive on offense and defense.

Baskets by Madi Prosser and Parker Ernst got the Lady Tigers within two points, then Ernst sank two free throws with 4:59 left in the third to tie the score at 36. Thirty-eight seconds later, Haylynn Crockett hit two more free throws to give the Lady Tigers their first lead of the night at 38-36, then Crockett sank a basket with 4:07 left in the period to cap a 10-0 run and make it 40-36.

“I'd say that we came out first quarter not really expecting (Malden to do what they did),” Prosser said. “We were just laid back (early), but we really brought the fire (after halftime). We picked it up on defense. We were really relying on offense the first half of the game. The second half, we came out in defense (mode) and we got the game back.”

Hestania Jackson's basket for the Lady Wave briefly stopped the bleeding and made it a 40-38 game, but Neelyville closed the period on an 18-1 run to take a 58-39 lead to the fourth quarter.

Ernst rose to the occasion for the Lady Tigers in the third quarter, scoring 18 of her game-high 31 points during the period.

“She struggled the first half, but she was able to play through it,” Hale said. “She's a good player — she's tough, and she's able to get it done.”

Ernst's basket just over 30 seconds int the fourth quarter gave Neelyville its first 20-point lead of the game, but the Lady Wave scored 10 straight points and cut the lead down to 10 points (61-51) on Mariah Loya's basket with less than 5 1/2 minutes to go in the contest.

But that's as close as Malden got the rest of the way as the Lady Tigers were able to close out the contest.

Jade Crosswhite drained five first-half 3-pointers to keep Neelyville in the game during the first half and finished with 18 points, while Crockett added eight and Prosser had seven.

Carsyn Cohen led the Lady Wave with 21 points, while Thornton added 12 and the duo of Loya and Jackson finished with nine apiece.

The Lady Tigers will host St. Vincent of Perryville in a Class 2 quarterfinal contest on Saturday. St. Vincent is ranked fourth in Class 2 (Neelyville is ranked seventh) and downed St. Paul Lutheran of Farmington 59-28 to earn the right to take on the Lady Tigers.

“We're going to have to come out ready to play,” Hale said. “We're going to have to do a lot more blocking out in rebounding than what we did tonight, and getting after it.”