By Tony Burns
Sports Editor
El Dorado hosted Magnolia on Senior Night Thursday at Wildcat Arena. The Lady Wildcats celebrated in style with a 48-19 win. The Panthers pulled away in the fourth quarter and prevailed 66-56 in the boys’ regular-season finale.
The conference tournament tips off on Saturday. El Dorado’s girls travel to Russellville at 3 p.m. El Dorado’s boys go to Greenwood for a 4:30 p.m. tip-off.
The Lady Wildcats will enter the conference tournament on back-to-back defensive gems. Magnolia scored one bucket in the second quarter and trailed 20-9 at the half. El Dorado surrendered just three field goals in the second half and one of those came after clearing the bench.
“We’ve been working on it,” El Dorado coach Destinee Rogers said of the team‘s defense. “We held Hope to nine points in the first half and tonight we held Magnolia to nine points in the second half. So, our defense has definitely gotten better. We communicate better. We help better. This is the time of the year when you want it to be better.”
Offensively, senior Kierra Boone scored 11 of the Lady Wildcats’ 15 points in the first quarter. She finished with 19 points, nine rebounds and three blocked shots.
“I wanted to start her for Senior Night. She told me, ‘No, Coach, I want to keep it the same.’ She’s doing what she’s got to do as a senior, helping to lead this team,” Rogers said of Boone. “It sure does help to have that inside presence.”
El Dorado used a 20-1 run to stretch a 15-9 lead with 7:01 left in the second to 35-10 after Grace Murry’s 3-pointer with 3:12 left in the third.
Martie Wade had a steal and lay-up and Tasia Richardson hit a 3-pointer during the run. Wade hit a 3-pointer to increase the margin to 40-12 with 1:41 left in the third.
The Lady Wildcats led 42-15 going into the final period before Adrianne Larry’s steal and three-point play triggered the mercy rule, 47-17, with 3:08 left to play.
Murry scored seven points with two assists. Wade scored five with four steals.
Diamond Hawthorne scored five with six rebounds as El Dorado evened its record at 12-12.
Diamond Love led the Lady Panthers with eight points.
In the boys game, the Wildcats led 23-22 at the half and were up 25-22 before the Panthers went on a 9-0 spurt, ignited by Tyler Brown’s 3-pointer.
Magnolia led 34-30 before Brown hit back-to-back 3-pointers. After Joderrio Ramey scored for El Dorado, Markeveon Strickland hit another 3-pointer for the Panthers, who led 43-32 late in the third.
Ramey scored in the lane to end the quarter for El Dorado, which started the fourth with 3-pointers by Bishop Foster and Brendan Johnson, cutting the deficit to 43-40.
But, Magnolia regained control. Kadyn Roach converted a three-point play before Brown pulled up on the break to nail another 3-pointer. Braelyn Beasley converted a three-point play to push the margin to 52-40 with 4:58 remaining.
The Wildcats never got closer than eight points the rest of the way.
Ramey led El Dorado with 17 points. Johnson and Keshun Greene contributed 12 and 10, respectively.
Roach poured in 27 for Magnolia. Brown scored all of his 19 in the second half. Beasley added 12.