December 18, 2018

BROSELEY -- Neelyville is one win away from its sixth straight appearance in the championship game of the Lady Royals Classic. The second-seeded Lady Tigers dominated seventh-seeded Kelly 72-41, led by 35 points from Murray State commit Jentri Worley...

Nate Fields Sports Writer

BROSELEY -- Neelyville is one win away from its sixth straight appearance in the championship game of the Lady Royals Classic.

The second-seeded Lady Tigers dominated seventh-seeded Kelly 72-41, led by 35 points from Murray State commit Jentri Worley.

Worley and the rest of the team wasted no time taking the lead. Senior Rhegan Tutor cleaned up a missed layup with a putback less than 10 seconds into the game, and the wire-to-wire rout was on.

The Lady Tigers (5-4) began the game on a 16-5 run, and a personal 11-0 burst from Worley put the No. 2 seed up double figures in the first quarter.

"Lately, we've been starting the game kind of slow, like really slow, so we tried to start the game harder," Worley said. "I didn't feel like we started it that hard, but I mean, it was better than what it's been."

Worley sank three 3-pointers and finished a drive to the basket with a layup for the 11 points. She scored 15 total in a red-hot first quarter.

A rainbow 3 on the wing from Anna Goering briefly brought Kelly (6-4) back within single digits, but a free throw from Tutor late in the first quarter put Neelyville back ahead by double figures for good.

"We're just working on making our spurts a little longer and hopefully getting it together, and I still don't think we were too in sync, but we was working hard," Neelyville coach Becky Hale said.

The Neelyville offense was running like a well-oiled machine for the majority of the night. When Worley didn't have the ball in her hands, she was effectively working the baseline to get open for corner 3s or layups underneath. Tori Harlow knocked down a couple of spot-up treys on the wing in the third and fourth quarter to take some of the pressure off the interior players. Harlow finished with six points. Makenzi Davis boosted the offense with 13 points on five made shots.

"We just kept trying to change it up, you know, and try not to get something going too much, but we just used (Worley) on the baseline, and it opened it up for them out there (on the perimeter), and when they went to (Worley) on the baseline, we put her up top, you know, and opened up for them down low," Hale said.

The defense was arguably even better. The Lady Tigers were pressuring the ball and forcing turnovers, many of which led to layups in transition for easy points, and Worley made the most of those by leaking out for layups if she wasn't directly involved in getting steals. Active hands helped create a handful of jump balls to land the Lady Tigers a few extra possessions, too.

"When we came out on defense, I think we were more aggressive on the defensive end and the offensive end, and I think that helped, too," Worley said.

Neelyville played a suffocating style of defense without fouling a lot, committing just 10 in the game.

"We just try to get better no matter who our opponent is," Hale said. "We just try to get better individually and as a team each game, you know. ... We just try to read and react and talk each other through what's going on out there."

Almost everything went Neelyville's way Monday. The Lady Tigers held Kelly sophomore Alaney Moore to eight points. Moore scored 24 in the first round in the Lady Hawks' win over Charleston.

A 23-7 run in the second half put Neelyville ahead by 30 points and caused a running clock for part of the fourth quarter, helping the No. 2 seed reach the semifinal once again.

Consolation Quarterfinals

(12) Greenville 54,

(13) Portageville 48

McKenzie Miller scored 18 points on seven made shots in the quarterfinals of the consolation bracket to help lead Greenville (3-6) past Portageville 54-48. Kate Bangert added a dozen points on five made baskets to boost the Lady Bears. Garielle Madison led the offensive charge for Portageville (1-7), scoring 28 points, more than half of her team's total for the night, on 13 makes from the field.

Greenville trailed by a point at the half, but a solid defensive effort in the third quarter helped the Lady Bears outscore Portageville 14-2 in the third to take a double digit lead into the fourth. Portageville held a 16-7 advantage in the fourth, but it fell just short of completing the comeback.

(10) Charleston 69, (15) Malden 59

A balanced offensive performance helped Charleston (6-4) advance in the consolation bracket Monday against Malden (0-8). Five different players scored in double figures for the Lady Bluejays, led by Zycaisha Williams with 17. Jermaneja Smith added 13, Joriana Mixon scored 11, and Ashanti Jones and Nicole Hart both scored 10 points as the Bluejays earned a 69-59 win over the Green Wave. Shamya Dobbins scored 18 points on eight made shots from the floor for Malden. The Lady Bluejays took control of the game in the second quarter with a 24-15 edge to enter the locker room ahead by 10 points.

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