Lady Bearcats win third-straight Lady Royals championship

BROSELEY -- Neelyville took an early bath in the championship of the Lady Royals Classic and was left treading water the rest of the night.

Dexter scored the first 12 points of the final against the Lady Tigers and closed out the foul troubled team in the second half, winning 63-45.

Dexter has now won the tournament three straight years and six times since 2005. Dexter also beat Neelyville in the final last year 71-32.

Paige Patterson, who finished with eight points, scored the first points of the game with a putback that was Dexter's third attempt of the possession.

She soon added four more, Erika Cobb chipped in three, Dexter got back-to-back steals in the back court and suddenly the Lady Bearcats, who won their previous three games in the tournament by an average of 71 points, looked like they were going to run away with another one.

"The first two minutes, we didn't come out with any confidence at all," Neelyville coach Becky Hale said. "Then we got settled down and played the way we know how. It was probably bucket for bucket. Late in the game we just made some stupid mistakes and they just kind of climbed the lead on us."

The Lady Bearcats also struggled with nerves, despite the early lead.

"Neelyville, they always show up to play, honestly, and they have a good coach. They run a 1-2-2 and we are not used to that. I felt like we came out rattled for no reason," Hannah Noe said. "There were like six times down the floor where we just air balled. Brick, air ball, turnover, turnover, air ball, brick. In that situation we've got to attack."

Noe led all scorers with 21 points and was 8-for-11 on free throws.

The Lady Tigers stopped turning the ball over and found their form toward the end of the first quarter. They competed with the Lady Bearcats throughout the rest of the game, but were never able to overcome the initial deficit.

Christina Russom got the momentum going with a steal and found Shelby Moon for an easy layup. With 44 seconds left in the first quarter, she snared another pass and found Riley Washburn, cutting Dexter's lead to 14-7.

"Making good plays, even routine plays, against a good team like that, it builds your confidence," Hale said. "People say that, 'Hey, we can play our game.' "I think that got everybody else going and got them pumped up. We were able to get in sink after that."

The Lady Bearcats (10-0) built up a 15-point lead in the second quarter shortly after Neelyville (7-1) went into the bonus, but the Lady Tigers managed a 5-1 run in the final minute.

Jazmyne Smith scored on a buzzer beater under the basket at halftime to make it 28-17.

Russom and Moon, however, both picked up their fourth foul with a little more than a minute to play in the half. Moon, along with Emily Eaker, led Neelyville with 12 points. Neither Moon nor Russom fouled out.

"The players on the bench stepped up," Hale said. "They had to adjust to two starters not being on the floor."

"I think we blocked out and rebounded pretty well. They are just so athletic and big that they just kind of got around us and everything," Hale said.

There was a 5 minute stretch in the second quarter where neither team made a field goal. After Cobb scored with 6 minutes on the clock, both teams could only make free throws, and missed more than half of those. Alison Jarrell ended the drought when she was fouled on a putback and converted the 3-point play to put Dexter ahead 25-12.

"The first half was pretty sloppy," Cobb said. "We could not hit anything."

Said Noe, "I felt like the whole game was sloppy. They put good pressure on the ball ... We picked it up better in the second half, but I felt in the first half we were pretty sloppy."

Both Moon and Russom played the third quarter without committing a foul and Neelyville went into the final eight minutes trailing 47-35. Russom fouled out a little less than three minutes into the fourth quarter. Moon was able to finish the game.

Hale called a timeout at 6:04 in the fourth quarter after the Lady Bearcats opened with a 6-0 run, putting them up by 18. Running a half court trap, Dexter stole passes on back-to-back possessions, earning a layup on the second swipe. Then Moon committed her fifth foul and the writing was on the wall with five minutes left and undefeated Dexter up by 20.

"I felt like our defense was very good tonight," Noe said. "Very active, very aggressive, and on the offensive end, I felt like we were really aggressive when we had to be."

Neelyville 7 10 18 10 -- 45

Dexter 16 12 19 16 -- 63

NEELYVILLE (45) - Shelby Moon 12, Maggie Eaker 3, Jazmyne Smith 4, Emily Eaker 12, Chelsea Petty 4, Christina Russom 1, Riley Washburn 9. FG 16, FT 10/19, F 19. (3-pointers: Moon 2, Washburn 1. Fouled out: none)

DEXTER (63) - Dakota Reynolds 6, Hannah Noe 21, Melanie McKuin 5, Alison Jarrell 8, Erika Cobb 15, Paige Patterson 8. FG 21, FT 19/29, F 22. (3-pointers: Noe 1, Cobb 1. Fouled out: Cobb)