Photos by Amanda Hall

Saturday night the Lavaca Lady Arrows played for the 2A west Regional Championship, and what a game it was. The Lady Arrows led Danville the entire game. In an earlier article, I said this was going to be a war, and it was. Neither team gave an inch, but the Lady Arrows finally broke after foul trouble put two of Lavaca’s starters out of the game. Lavaca dominated the first three quarters of play, but in the 4th quarter the Lady Little Johns were able to erase a 13 point deficient to send the game to Overtime. For the Lady Arrows this was a tough pill to swallow. These two teams have battle four times this year and all four games have been a battle.

Coach Wyles was obviously disappointed in the outcome of the game, but he was proud of the Lady Arrow’s performance. On Sunday he had this to say, “Last night was a tough one for us. I thought we played about as well as we have all year for 3 quarters, but some foul trouble got us out of rhythm late in the game. Sierra, Julianne, and Hope shot the ball extremely well. After Beth Ann and Skylar had 2 great games this week. I thought Danville tried to do everything they could to minimize the damage inside. Our guards did a great job of keeping Danville honest on the perimeter and not allowing them to pack it in the lane. Danville deserves a lot of credit for battling back when they got down by 13 in the 2nd half. I was extremely proud of how our girls fought through some adversity, but unfortunately it just wasn’t our night.” Sierra Lamb and Julianne O’Dell led the team with 14 points each. Hope Headley also was solid with 13 Points. Beth Ann May added 6 points, and Skylar Hyatt and Avery Green finished with 4 each.

The Lady Arrows are not near done this year. Lavaca will go into the State tournament as the number two seed. They will play the Riverside Lady Rebels at 1pm on Thursday, February 28th in Carlisle Arkansas. Both teams come into the Tournament with a 10-2 conference record. For Lavaca, the key to the game will be to continue to play excellent defense. Riverside outscores Lavaca 53-45 on average and Lavaca will have to have a big game defensively to even the scales. Look for Skylar Hyatt and BethAnn May to control the paint, closing down the lane. Hope Headley, Avery Green, and Sierra Lamb will need to frustrate the Lady Rebs in the half-court. Offensively, the Lady Arrows will have to control the tempo of the game and take care of the ball.

The Lavaca Lady Arrows will play for the 2A West Regional Championship tomorrow against in a rematch of the 2A-4 District Championship game. The Lady Arrows have been stellar throughout the Regional Tournament and tonight was no different. Lavaca played Hector in the semifinal game tonight and played the 3-2 defense to near perfection. Offensively, they pushed the tempo of the game early and scored from both the post as well as beyond the arch. Great defense turned to fast break opportunities and the Lady Arrows were able to score at will. Hope Headley led the team in scoring tonight with 10. BethAnn May and Skylar Hyatt had another big night down low scoring 9 and 8 points respectively. Sierra Lamb tacked on another 7. Avery Green and Sierra Lamb both ran the floor well and set up the offense.

Tomorrow night, February 23 at 6:00 the Lady Arrows will once again tip it off against the Danville Lady Little Johns. Danville currently owns this years series 2-1. However, with Danville being Lavaca’s only conference loss this year, the Lady Arrows rebounded to beat them in the District Finals on their own court. Lavaca will have the chance tomorrow to even the score with Danville 2-2 and win another championship, this time the 2A West Regional, as well as the number one seed going into the 2A State Tournament next week. No doubt this game has a lot riding on it, and will be an all out war.

This year the Lady Arrows have continued to get better all year. Their confidence is growing each time they hit the court, and they are riding a huge momentum wave. Coach Wyles has been able to bring out the best from his players and has them right in the thick of things. He had the following to say about tonight’s game as well of tomorrow, “I was very proud of the girls effort tonight. We came out and jumped on Hector early, leading 24-5 at halftime. We knew coming into the game that Hector had played a fast paced game last night, we wanted to push the tempo on them early. I thought we executed well on offense and shot a little better from the outside tonight. We look forward to playing Danville again tomorrow night for another championship. Both teams will be ready and it should be another battle.”