Charleston beats Kelly at the line, moves on to conference title game

BENTON -- Charleston and Kelly combined for 63 fouls in a girls basketball game that was decided at the free-throw line.

Neither team was impressive, but the Bluejays shot 66 percent (33 of 50) from the charity stripe, compared to the Hawks' 51 percent (20 of 39) shooting.

It was just enough for third-seeded Charleston to come away with a 68-64 win over the No. 2 Hawks in a semifinal of the Scott-Mississippi Conference Tournament on Thursday at Kelly High School.

"We talk about tempo," Charleston coach Josh Thompson said. "We know we want to play really fast. We know it doesn't win the game in the first half, but we want to wear them down. We felt like we did that to Kelly tonight. They're a lot bigger than we are. Their size was a dominant factor in the first half, but then they got tired in the second half. And we were able to take control of the game."

The Bluejays will face top-seeded Chaffee at 8:30 p.m. today in the tournament championship game, while Kelly will take on No. 4 Oran. The Red Devils eased past the Eagles 51-31 in the first semifinal.

"You can't miss 20 free throws and win a basketball game. Let's give Charleston credit," Kelly coach Rod McQuerter said. "... The game is hard when you miss 20 free throws. We did everything we were supposed to do. We were aggressive. We attacked the basket and did everything the coaches told them to do, but we've got to make the free throws. We'll get better. We're keeping a good attitude, and we've just got to get better at that."

Tessa Johnson pulled up from the left side of the arc and knocked down a 3-pointer with 3 minutes, 13 seconds remaining in the opening period to give Kelly (8-5) a 14-6 lead, but Charleston (9-2) went on a 7-0 run to pull within one point at the end of the period.

The Bluejays took the lead on an 11-4 run that was capped by a putback layup from Cheyenne Randle. However, Johnson scored all of Kelly's points during a 9-1 run that closed the first half, including a trey with 35 seconds remaining in the period that gave the Hawks the lead. Johnson finished with a game-high 22 points as Kelly led 31-29 at halftime.

"She had a very good game. She led us tonight," McQuerter said about Johnson. "I told her, 'You keep doing what you're doing.' She had a great attitude tonight, and it was tough. They had two or three girls guarding her at one time, but she kept her head up and was looking for her teammates."

Charleston opened the second half with an 11-0 run, during which Sierra Frazier netted nine of her team-high 21 points.

"She's an all-state player, a four-year starter," Thompson said about Frazier. "It's games like this that we depend on her to win. ... Frazier and Randle did their job, but we get that out of them every night. It's the others that made the difference in tonight's game."

After a timeout, Logan Ivie capped an 8-0 run with a putback layup at the 3:40 mark of the third period, cutting the Bluejays' lead to 40-39. Charleston responded by closing the period on a 10-0 run and led 50-39 heading into the fourth quarter.

The Bluejays continued pressing late into the game, which Thompson said is something he wants his players to embrace as part of their identity.

"We pressure 32 minutes. We don't want to slow down," Thompson said. "We want as many possessions as we can get. We want turnovers, and I think we did a good job switching up our defense tonight so they couldn't get into a rhythm with what they wanted to do."

With 4:20 left in the game, Johnson ended a 12-3 for the Hawks by draining a 3-pointer from the left corner, trimming Charleston's lead to five points at 56-51. Kelly drew even closer at the 1:25 mark of the period, when Kristi Brucker stole an inbounds under the basket and scored an easy bucket to cut the lead to 62-59.

However, foul trouble limited the Hawks' inside presence in the waning moments of the game as four of Kelly's post players -- Ivie, Stephanie Worth, Kaylee Scherer and Morgan LeDure -- fouled out and were forced to watch from the bench.

"We can't have four of our post players foul out," McQuerter said. "The whole last quarter, we only had guards in the game. We told them, 'We need some post players in the game for rebounding purposes.' Our post players played hard. It just wasn't their night in terms of moving their feet and getting their hands up."

Randle scored 18 points for Charleston, and Sharrell Woods had 10.

Ivie contributed 12 points in the loss, while Brucker added 10.

"Our goal was to play three games in this tournament," McQuerter said. "That's the goal of every tournament we play. ... We're just trying to prepare for districts. That's our goal, and that should be everyone's goal. We're trying to get better for districts because I'd rather miss free throws in January than miss them in late February."

CHARLESTON (68) -- Sierra Frazier 21, Cheyenne Randle 18, Sharrell Woods 10, Juwanna Walker 7, Connor Watkins 5, Fa'Quaia Wilson 4, Danitra Jones 1. FG 17, FT 33-50, F 30. (3-pointers: Frazier 1. Fouled out: Evans, Watkins.)

KELLY (64) -- Tessa Johnson 22, Logan Ivie 12, Kristi Brucker 10, Morgan LeDure 8, Tori Duenne 6, Stephanie Worth 5, Kaylee Scherer 2. FG 20, FT 20-39, F 33. (3-pointers: Johnson 4. Fouled out: LeDure, Scherer, Worth, Ivie.)