WOODLAWN - Don't look now, but he Woodlawn Lady Bears may be starting to peak.
Woodlawn pulled off a shocker Tuesday afternoon when the sixth-seeded Lady Bears up-ended the third-seeded Gurdon Lady Devils, 65-39, in the second round off the 8-2A District Tournament being hosted by Woodlawn.
The victory put the Lady Bears into the tournament semifinals against no. 2 seed Ouachita, and also guaranteed them a berth in the Class 2A South Region Tournament to be held next week at Acorn High School outside of Mena.
It was a completely unexpected outcome considering that the Lady Devils easily handled the Lady Bears in their two previous meetings, winning 56-40 on Jan. 9 at Gurdon and 51-31 less than two weeks ago, Feb. 1, at Woodlawn.
In a repeat performance from the tournament opener Monday against Junction City, senior Anna Fitzgibbon once again got off to a red hot start, this time scoring 11 points in the first quarter as Woodlawn opened up a 16-12 lead by the end of the frame.
Kathryn Dixon then found her range from outside as she knocked down three 3-pointers to put up 10 points and help extend the Lady Bears' lead to 2921 by the break.
That momentum carried over into the third quarter as Woodlawn used a balanced scoring attack to push its lead to , 43-28, by the start of the fourt.
What hope the Lady Devils had of getting back into the game was dashed at the free throw line as the Lady Bears converted 15-of-16 attempts over the fourth quarter. The only other scoring for Woodlawn in the period came off another 3 by Dixon and field goals by Lillie Faye McWhorter and Kelsi Mack. Dixon ended up as the game's leading scorer with 20 followed by Fitzgibbon with 19, Jaci Hoyt with 11 and McWhorter with eight.
Woodlawn made 29-of-37 free throw attempts for the game. It was the Lady Bears' third consecutive victory as they improved to 13-15 overall.
Woodlawn 52, Junction City 35 ...
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