HAYS — The third installment of the trilogy between the Forbush and North Wilkes girls basketball teams last Tuesday night certainly lived up to the billing of the two previous matchups.
The stakes were much higher this time and the Lady Vikings used a strong third quarter and then held off the Lady Falcons in a 53-49 decision in the semifinals of the Foothills 2A Conference tournament.
In addition to a spot in Friday’s championship game (which North Wilkes defeated East Surry, 45-30), both squads were in search of their 20th win of the winter.
Fourth-seeded Forbush (19-7) put itself in good shape to potentially defeat the tournament hosts for the second time in seven days as it led 27-22 early in the third quarter on a Katelyn Eads 3-pointer.
To that point, every point that the Lady Falcons had scored had come from beyond the arc. Forbush had nine triples then and finished with 13 for the game.
The Falcons’ first two-point basket came courtesy of a Morgan Pinnix layup with 2:59 to play in the third.
Prior to Pinnix’s basket, the top-seeded Lady Vikings took control of the game, thanks to the play of Shalyn Bare and a 12-2 run to close out the third.
The freshman scored 10 of her 16 points in the third quarter and also dished out a nice assist on Elizabeth Foster’s three-point play.
Olivia Rhodes helped add to the lead and used a basket through contact to extend the advantage to as many as 12 (46-34).
Rhodes led all scorers with 19 points and scored her 1,000th career point late in the fourth quarter.
Even with the momentum leaning in favor of North Wilkes, the Lady Falcons trimmed a 10-point deficit to three (52-49) with 20 seconds to play on Eads’ fifth 3-pointer of the game.
But Shalyn Bare and Destinee Lasko went a combined 3-of-4 from the free-throw line to put the game to bed.
Eads paced the Lady Falcons, who played without the services of starting guard Natalie Scott (who injured her knee in Forbush’s 54-50 win against North Wilkes in the previous matchup), with 17 points and Katie Furno and Carrie Vestal added nine apiece. Meredith Tomko chipped in eight points. Eads was also named to the FH2A All-Tournament team, which was announced on Friday night.
In addition to Rhodes and Bare, Foster just missed making it a trio of Lady Vikings in double figures as she finished with nine points.
Both teams qualified for the North Carolina High School Athletic Association 2A playoffs when the pairings were announced on Saturday. The Lady Vikings garnered the No. 1 seed while the Lady Falcons earned the No. 15 seed.
Forbush hosted No. 18 Providence Grove on Tuesday night at 6 p.m. with the winner advancing to the second round on Friday night.
#1 North Wilkes 53, #4 Forbush 49
Forbush 15 17 12 10 — 49
North Wilkes 15 8 12 15 — 53
FORBUSH: Meredith Tomko 8; Emily Eads 4; Katelyn Eads 17; Mallory Chapman 0; Morgan Pinnix 2; Katie Furno 9; Mariah Livingston 0; Carrie Vestal 9.
NORTH WILKES: Destinee Lasko 4; Abbie Myers 2; Olivia Rhodes 19; Allie Farrington 2; Shalyn Bare 16; Elizabeth Foster 9
THREE-POINTERS: Forbush: K. Eads 5, Vestal 3, Tomko 2, Furno 2, E. Eads. North Wilkes: Rhodes 3, Lasko.
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