Union County lost its first basketball team on Wednesday as Strong's girls fell to Dermott 32-23 in the 2A 7-East District Tournament at Woodlawn. It's been 10 years since the Lady Bulldogs failed to make state, much less the regional.
A nearly 15-minute scoring drought in the second half did in Strong.
Junction City nearly suffered the same fate against Woodlawn. Leading scorer Ebony Holyfield fouled out with nearly six minutes to go in the game. Coach Henry Harrell's bench came up big as the Lady Dragons rallied to tie the game with 11 seconds left and won it in overtime 57-48.
It was a thrilling game between two teams that played like they knew what was at stake. When the Lady Dragons went up by three possessions in the overtime, some of the Lady Bears couldn't contain their emotions, weeping on the court despite time still being on the clock.
No, I don't like seeing children cry. But, I do love emotion. I like it when players leave everything on the court and play the game as if it's their last one.
It's been a long boring season for me but Junction City and Woodlawn got some of the old juices flowing. Those girls got after it and fought for 32 minutes and on into overtime.
The Lady Dragons will keep playing basketball at Woodlawn and on into the regional tournament next week at Foreman.
The road ended for Strong, however. Hopefully, the Lady Bulldogs got close enough to the prize to know what an off-season of hard work could produce next year.
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