WOODLAWN - While the Woodlawn Lady Bears’ magical ran in the 8-2A District Tournament didn’t have the fairy tale ended they would have liked it to have last Thursday in the finals against the Fordyce Ladybugs, it was enough to give them a load of momentum heading in post-season play Woodlawn, playing in its fourth consecutive game in as many days, led by as many as 17 in the first half before Fordyce came roaring back to pull out a 53-48 win in the tournament championship game inside the Woodlawn Gym.The fact that the sixth-seeded Lady Bears were even in the finals was a testament to an unexpected ran that really began when they held off a late rally by their county rivals, the Rison Lady Wildcats, to win the regular season finale.Going into that game, Woodlawn had lost seven of the eight games it had played in 2024. And that lone victory came when the Lady Bears squeezed out a 50-47 win on the road against a Junction City team that was winless in conference play.But signs of a turnaround started to emerge early in that Feb. 9 matchup at Rison as the Lady Bears built a 16-point lead before holding off a wild fourthquarter comeback by Rison to escape with a 45-41 victory.Woodlawn was then matched up against seventh-seeded Junction City in the first round of the District Tournament last Monday, and the Lady Bears took care of business, 52-35.That victory matched them up with the third-seeded Gurdon Lady Devils in the quarterfinals last Tuesday. Those same Lady Devils had beaten the Lady Bears by 20 inside their own gym on Feb. 1. However, the surging Lady Bears completely turned the tables ths time, blowing out Gurdon, 65-39.Advancing to the tournament semifinals last Wednesday, the Lady Bears faced the no. 2 seed Ouachita Lady Warriors, a team that had swept Woodlawn during the regular season.Again, the Lady Bears had another shocker as they used a balanced scoring attack to pull off a 50-42 upset to set up a sh...
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