The second night of the Billy Ply Memorial Tournament ended with the Mountain Home High School basketball teams splitting their semifinal games.
The Lady Bombers wrapped up the night with a 61-36 victory over Bentonville West. While it wasn’t Mountain Home’s cleanest game, they led throughout the whole contest. The Lady Bombers outscored the Lady Wolverines 17-6 in the opening quarter and later went into the locker room up 19. Bentonville West cut into their deficit briefly in the third quarter before Mountain Home pulled away again and later went on to win by 25.
Anna McCarn led the Lady Bombers with 14 points, and Sarah Williams added 10 in her second game back from injury. No one was in double figures for the Lady Wolverines.
Mountain Home improves to 5-2 on the season, and their opponent in Saturday’s championship game is Bergman. Flippin fell to the Lady Panthers 62-49 in the other semifinal.
On the consolation side of the bracket, Highland topped Thayer, Mo., 64-56, and Southside Batesville got past Harrisburg 53-50.
The Bombers did not fare as well on the boys’ side as they suffered a 61-58 defeat to Chadwick, Mo. It was a back-and-forth game for much of the first half. Mountain Home led the Cardinals by six at the break, but the tide turned in the third quarter as the Bombers were outscored 24-9. Chadwick went up double digits in the final period, but the Bombers mounted a comeback. Mountain Home cut the margin to two on a three-pointer by Rhett Gilbert with 2.7 seconds left, and they fouled Clayton Garrison exactly one second later. Garrison hit one of two free throws to keep it a one-possession game. On the ensuing play, Jackson Corp threw the inbounds pass to Tyler Podwoski at the half court stripe, and his shot was off the mark as the Cardinals held on.
The Bombers were led by Ryder McClain with 17 points, Corp scored 13, and Gilbert and Blaine Tate each chipped in 12. Garrison had 27 for Chadwick.
Mountain Home falls to 3-4, and they’ll meet Flippin for third place. The host Bobcats lost to Lake Hamilton 60-56.
In the consolation games, Highland beat Lake Hamilton’s junior varsity squad 50-39, and Shiloh Christian was a 51-41 winner over Harrisburg.
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