Consolation hopes foiled

BROSELEY -- Unable to close a six-point gap entering the fourth quarter against the Greenville Lady Bears Tuesday night, the Charleston Lady Bluejays run at the 14th annual Lady Royal Holiday Classic came to end with a 60-50 loss.

"We played tough tonight, but didn't hit our shots," Charleston head coach Josh Thompson said.

Within three points of Greenville as late as mid-third quarter, the Lady Bluejays saw the Lady Bears slowly start pulling away before going up by 12 at 57-45 with just over two minutes to play in the fourth.

Giving Charleston one last chance at a comeback, Eneikqua Ewing scored five-straight points to put her team back within seven with 1:40 to play. The Lady Bluejays' quickly regained possession with a possibility to cut the deficit to four with a little over a minute to play.

Unfortunately for Charleston, the Lady Bluejays couldn't get a shot to land and, after Greenville rebounded the ball, the Lady Bears connected on 3-of-4 free throws in the final minute to put the game away.

It was a big difference in the fortunes of both teams at the line that really added to Charleston's troubles. While Greenville connected on 10-of-14 free throws in the fourth quarter, the Lady Bluejays only managed to hit 4-of-14 in the same time frame.

"That's been our achilles heel this year," Thompson said. "We've shot over 50 percent, and this our seventh game, one time as a team all year. We're going to get better at that."

Now at 2-5, Charleston will get about two weeks off hosting Caruthersville, Jan. 6 at 6 p.m.

Greenville 11 17 12 20 - 60

Charleston 9 15 10 16 - 50

GREENVILLE (60) -- Bailey Faries 1, Sarah Hillis 2, Bailey White 8, MaryJo Atchison 5, Andrea Becker 31, Tori Porter 13. FG 20, FT 20-27, F 13. (3-pointers: none. Fouled out: Hillis).

CHARLESTON (50) -- Makayla Thompson 3, Gabrielle Quinn 4, Taylor Duenne 15, Eneikqua Ewing 19, Jasmine Spence 9. FG 19, FT 8-21, F 20. (3-pointers: Thompson 1, Duenne 3. Fouled out: Ewing).

E. Carter 73, Portageville 45

BROSELEY -- Building a 12-point lead by the half, the East Carter County Lady Redbirds defeated the Portageville Lady Bulldogs 73-45 to advance to the consolation bracket semifinals.

"East Carter did a great job of getting the ball inside on their post-play," Portageville head coach Barry Branscum said. "Their post players played fantastic tonight. We struggled figuring out how to stop that."

Up by 14 points midway through the fourth quarter, the Lady Redbirds put the game away by going on an 11-0 run that pushed their lead to 25 at 65-40 with just over two minutes to play.

Leading the way for Portageville (1-7), Brooke Johnson contributed a team-high 12 points while Latavia Harris was second on the Lady Bulldogs with eight.

"I thought offensively we played very aggressive," Branscum said of the game. "Defensively we had a few breakdowns, but it's something for us build on and work on after Christmas."

Portageville 12 15 8 10 - 45

East Carter 21 18 9 25 - 73

PORTAGEVILLE (45) -- Emily Delisle 4, Jennifer Ifland 1, Taylor McCoy 5, Danielle Morgan 1, Janika McIntyre 9, Latavia Harris 8, Katelyn Jackson 2, Natalie Parrott 3, Brooke Johnson 12. FG 13, FT 19-27, F 12. (3-pointers: none. Fouled out: Jackson).

EAST CARTER (73) -- Faith Eaves 14, Molly Freeze 10, Ashley Lovette 3, Courtney Marler 9, Lindsay Crowley 5, Mariah Randazzo 14, Kelen Smith 18. FG 32, FT 9-14, F 15. (3-pointers: none. Fouled out: Eaves, Smith).

Clearwater 38, Kelly 27

BROSELEY -- A rough fourth quarter spoiled the Kelly Lady Hawks comeback bid against the Clearwater Lady Tigers.

Down by five entering after three quarters of play, Kelly came up scoreless in the fourth as the Lady Tigers added another six points to win 38-27.

After scoring in the single digits in both the first two frames to enter the half down by six at 21-15, Kelly put up its biggest quarter of the night in the third.

With Haley Glastetter and Karlie Ashcraft both contributing four points in the frame as the Lady Hawks outscored the Lady Tigers 12-11, the Lady Hawks were able to cut Clearwater's lead by one to go into the fourth trailing 32-27.

Going 4-for-4 as a team from the line while Courtney Declue added a basket, however, Clearwater was able to build their lead back up while their defense kept the Lady Hawks out of striking distance.

Clearwater 10 11 11 6 - 38

Kelly 7 8 12 0 - 27

CLEARWATER (38) -- Brooklynn ZamZow 7, Maggie Hill 10, Kyra Garrison 11, Haley Alcorn 2, Courtney Declue 8. FG 13, FT 9-16, F 10. (3-pointers: Garrison 3. Fouled out: none).

KELLY (27) -- Haley Glastetter 7, Bridgett Chandler 4, Kristen Powell 2, Karlie Ashcraft 4, Kayla Hicks 10. FG 12, FT 3-5, F 17. (3-pointers: none. Fouled out: none).

Doniphan 59, Malden 33

BROSELEY -- Outscoring Malden in all four quarters, the Doniphan Donettes beat the Lady Green Wave 59-33.

Up by 17 entering the fourth, the Donette's offense kept rolling in the fourth with Halle McCaffrey's eight points in the final frame helping her team to pad their lead until the end.

Doniphan 17 13 13 16 - 59

Malden 9 10 7 7 - 33

DONIPHAN (59) -- Hannah Netherland 14, Micah Smith 4, Leslie Wood 2, Brittney Ritter 2, Megan Teegarden 11, Melinda Holmes 2, Emily Stonecipher 9, Sinora Morhmann 1, Halle McCaffrey 14. FG 22, FT 13-16, F 14. (3-pointers: Netherland 1, Teegarden 1. Fouled out: none).

MALDEN (33) -- Chelsey Telker 2, Kaytlyn Parker 2, Brittney Terrell 5, Kyeon Stone 10, Randi Walker 5, Jennifer Miller 7, Khadijah Barnes 2. FG 12, FT 6-11, F 14. (3-pointers: Terrell 1, Stone 1, Walker 1. Fouled out: none).