Lady Cardinals battle to the end
MARTIN COUCH Sports editor

The Harmony Grove Lady Cardinals entered this week's 5AAA Conference tournament as the eighth-seeded team after losing to the Bauxite Lady Miners 58-43.

"We looked good in the first quarter, but we had one field goal in the second period," said Harmony Grove assistant coach Lane Chancellor. "We didn't score until the end of the third quarter. We didn't come out with any intensity in the second half and we couldn't get anything going. We got sloppy with passes."

The Lady Cardinals trailed only 15-14 after the first period, but only had two free throws and a basket in the second quarter and trailed 28-19 at halftime. By the end of the third quarter, Harmony Grove was behind 40- 31.

Brittanie Raper led the Lady Cardinals with 12 points, Lauren McNeely added 10 points, while Jessica Kelloms added nine points, Gabbi Ferguson scored seven points and Brooke Baxley added five.

The Lady Cardinals played a slow first half and trailed visiting Perryville 14-13 at halftime.

Harmony Grove upped the defensive intensity and fought back to have a shot at the win as the buzzer sounded. Kelloms launched a 3-pointer as she was being physically blocked by a Perryville player that resulted in a miss. The Lady Cardinals lost 46-44.

LADY CARDINALS KEVIN NAGLE PHOTOS Above left, Harmony Grove's Brittanie Raper against Perryville. Above right, Brooke Baxley takes a shot.

"We picked up our defense a lot better than we did against Conway St. Joseph's," said Mooney. "We just concentrated on putting more pressure on their guards and did a good job on it, I thought. We missed a lot of shots and early in the third quarter, Perryville caught fire."

The Lady Cardinals came back with an 18-point fourth period to close the gap.

"We cut it to two and had a shot at the buzzer to win and missed it," Mooney said. "The effort was great. It was senior night and we had five seniors playing their last official home game. They wanted it bad and the underclassmen played hard trying to get it for them. It's a game you lose, but you feel good about it. We got beat 30 at Perryville and had a chance to beat them this time."

Kelloms led Harmony Grove with 15 points, while Raper added 12. McNeely had five points, Baxley and Martin scored four points, while Ferguson and Mallory Cabe added two points each.

The Lady Cardinals played Atkins on Monday in the first round of the district tournament.