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The 2024-25 Basketball Season for the Drew Central Lady Pirates and the Monticello Lady Billies and Billies came to an end this week with each team falling in their conference regional contests.
For the Drew Central Lady Pirates, the team would travel to Centerpoint for the 3A-4 Regional Tournament to face the host team, the Centerpoint Lady Knights, in the first round of the Regional Tournament.
The Lady Pirates would enter the Regional Tournament as the third seed out of the 8-3A with Centerpoint being the second seed out of the 7-3A.
Drew Central entered the tournament with an overall record of 22-7 overall and a 9-3 record in conference play with Centerpoint entering the contest with an overall record of 21-5 and a 13-1 record in the 7-3A Conference.
The Lady Pirates would get the early advantage in the first quarter, outscoring Centerpoint 16-11 in the quarter.
Centerpoint would come back in the second quarter to win the quarter 8-5 with Drew Central holding a 21-19 lead at the halftime break.
Centerpoint would carry their momentum into the third quarter, outscoring the Lady Pirates by nine points in the quarter, 14-5, to hold a seven point, 33-26, lead heading into the fourth quarter.
The Lady Pirates would come back in the fourth quarter, outscoring the Lady Knights 15-14 in the quarter, but would fall short by six points, 47-41, with Centerpoint advancing to the next round and qualifying for the 3A State Championship Tournament.
Amari Lucas would lead the way for the Lady Pirates with 12 points followed by Chloe Anderson with 10.
KZ Gipson added nine, Bailey Chapman and Vega Gutierrez with three points, and Toni Fuller with two.
Monticello would host the 4A-4 Regional Tournament at the new Billie Arena with the Monticello Lady Billies qualifying for the tournament as the fourth seed from the 8-4A with an overall record of 8-16 and a 4-6 4A-8 Conference record.
The Lady Billies would face the number one seed out of the 7-4A Conference, the Nashville Scrapperettes, who entered the tournament with an overall record of 23-7.
Nashville would get on the board first and would run away on the scoreboard in the first quarter, outscoring the Lady Billies by 20 points, 28-8.
Nashville would outscore Monticello 16-9 in the second quarter to hold a 44-17 lead heading into the half.
The Lady Billies would score 20 points in the third quarter, but Nashville would score 28 in the quarter to hold a 72-37 lead heading into the fourth quarter with the quarter to be played under the AAA Sportsmanship Rule with a running clock.
Nashville outscored the Lady Billies 9-6 in the final quarter to take the 38 point, 81-43, victory.
Genesis Freeman led the Lady Billies on the scoreboard with 11 followed by JaNiyah Goodman with 10.
Anniyah Smith added nine, Niyyah Collins with five, Zariyah Gaston with three, and Chyna Daniels and Eddy Grace Birch with two.
On the boys side of the bracket, the Monticello Billies would enter as the fourth seed and would face the Magnolia Panthers, the number one seed from the 7-4A.
The Billies would fall behind early in the first quarter, being outscored 15-3 in the quarter with Joseph Accules scoring the only three points for the Billies in the quarter.
Magnolia would maintain their momentum in the second quarter, outscoring Monticello 24-8 in the quarter to take a 38-11 lead into the halftime break.
Returning from the half, the Billies would have a better performance on the scoreboard in the third quarter with Accules scoring the majority of the Billies 14 points in the quarter, scoring 10 of the 14 points, however Magnolia would still take the quarter 15-14 to take a 53-25 lead into the fourth quarter.
Magnolia would take the final quarter 7-6 to advance to the next round of the tournament 60-31.
Joseph Accules would score 21 of the Billies 31 points with Peyton Strickland adding eight points with Gavin Trotter rounding out the Monticello scoring with two points.
