The Drew Central Lady Pirates travelled to Jessieville to participate in the 3A-4a Regional Tournament.
The Lady Pirates entered the tournament as the third seed coming out of the District Tournament held at Smackover the previous week and would begin the Regional Tournament facing the number two seed, the Centerpoint Lady Knights.
Centerpoint finished third in the 3A-7 with an overall record of 20-6 and a conference record of 10-4 heading into their District Tournament.
In their District Tournament, the Lady Knights would defeat Glen Rose and Jessieville before losing to the Fouke Lady Panthers, 57-40, in the District Championship contest to secure the second seed heading into the Regional Tournament.
Drew Central and Centerpoint last met in the 2022 Regional Tournament in the semifinal contest the Centerpoint won by a score of 53-28.
The Lady Pirates would take an early advantage over the Lady Knights in the first quarter, outscoring Centerpoint 10-8.
Scoring totals would drop in the second quarter with the Lady Pirates edging Centerpoint 7-6 in the quarter to take a 17-14 lead into the locker room at the halftime break.
Centerpoint would hold the Lady Pirates to four points in the third quarter, however the Lady Knights could only muster eight points but it was enough to take the lead heading into the fourth quarter, 22-21.
The Lady Pirates would be able to make up the one point difference in the fourth quarter, outscoring Centerpoint 10-9 in the quarter to force the contest to head into an overtime period with the score tied at 31.
In overtime, neither team could get much going offensively, but the Lady Pirates would be able to get a one point advantage, outscoring Centerpoint 4-3 to take the 35-34 victory and advancing to the 2024 3A State Championship Tournament.
In the contest, the Lady Pirates were led in scoring by Amari Lucas with 11 points followed by Sayveiona Durden with nine points.
Chloe Anderson added five, Kassidie Gilbert with four, and McKinizie Adcock and KZ Gipson rounding out the scoring with three points each.
The Lady Pirates would face one of their conference rivals in the semifinal contest on Friday, February 23, the Dumas Lady Bobcats.
In the contest, the Lady Bobcats defeated the Lady Pirates four the third time this season to advance to the Regional Tournament final by a score of 70-25 and knocked the Lady Pirates into the third/fourth place contest on Saturday, February 24.
On the other side of the regional bracket, the Jessieville Lady Lions would open tournament play with a 71-61 victory over the McGehee Lady Owls followed by a loss to Fouke in the semifinal contest 56-55.
The Lady Pirates would control the opening tip and Sayveiona Durden would be fouled driving to the basket and would connect on a pair of free throws to get Drew Central on the board first.
Jessieville would come back to score the next nine points in the contest to hold a 9-2 lead before Durden stopped the Lady Pirate scoring drought with a two pointer and and extra point on a free throw.
Durden would score nine of the Lady Pirates 14 first quarter points to help the Lady Pirates end the first quarter with an even score of 16-16.
Jessieville would gain momentum in the second quarter as the Lady Lions would outscore Drew Central 19-10 in the quarter to hold a 33-24 lead at the half.
Jessieville continued to outscore Drew Central in the third quarter, taking the quarter with an 11-8 advantage for a 44-33 lead heading into the fourth quarter.
Bailey Chapman would get the Lady Pirates on the board first in the fourth quarter on a three pointer and after a free throw by Jessieville, the Lady Pirates would get scores from Chloe Anderson and a two from Chapman to cut the Lady Lion lead to five points, 45-40, with 6:10 remaining in the contest.
Jessieville would go on an 8-0 run to extend their lead to 53-40 with 3:17 remaining in the contest.
Amari Lucas would connect on a three with 2:33 on the clock, but Jessieville would finish the contest outscoring Drew Central 18-15 to take the 62-48 win to secure the third seed with Drew Central heading to the State Tournament as the fourth seed.
In the fourth quarter, Jessieville attempted 14 free throws, connecting on 10 of 14, with Drew Central only seeing the charity stripe three times in the quarter going 2 of 3.
Leading in scoring for Drew Central was Bailey Chapman with 17 points followed by Sayveiona Durden with nine, Chloe Anderson with eight, and Amari Lucas with seven.
McKinzie Adcock added three with Toni Fuller and Kassidie Gilbert finishing with two points each.
For the third consecutive season, the Lady Pirates will enter the 3A State Championship Tournament as the fourth seed out of the 3A-4 Region and will face the number one seed out of the 3A-2 Regional Tournament, the Salem Lady Greyhounds.
Salem finished the regular season with an overall record of 21-6 and 14-0 in conference play.
Salem would lose one of their final regular season contests in a non conference matchup against Mammoth Springs but would win their final regular season non conference contest and would go on to win their District Tournament and the 3A-2 Regional Tournament and are currently on a seven game win streak heading into the 3A State Championship Tournament.
Salem is currently ranked by Scorebook Live as the fourth ranked team in Class 3A.
The Lady Pirates will face Salem on Wednesday, February 28, with a 1 pm tip scheduled at Elkins.
The winner will play Friday at 7 pm against the winner of Valley Springs and Lamar.
