Empire girls outlast Turner in physical game, 43-37

EMPIRE - It was a battle of top 20 teams in the first round of the girls’ Class A Area II Regional Tournament between No. 13 Empire and No. 19 Turner girls on Friday night. 

It turned out to be quite a literal battle. Players found themselves picking themselves off the floor on numerous occasions and it was not diving for loose basketballs. By the time the smoke cleared, the Lady Bulldogs had earned a hard-fought 43-37 win to remain unbeaten in the postseason.

“Arguably, it was the most physical game I’ve ever been a part of,” said Jaicee Powers, head coach. “Last year when we played Caddo it was physical, but I felt like the physicality tonight was different. They are quite a bit bigger than us, so physicality goes into their wheelhouse and they used it to their advantage.”

One advantage the Lady Bulldogs had was a deeper bench. Turner only had one player coming off the bench, while Powers substituted more freely.

“Our plan was to wear them down,” Power said. “Honestly, we are a guard-oriented team with some really good guard play. I wasn’t counting on the number of turnovers that we had. We got a little bit flustered and let the physicality get to us a little bit. If we wouldn’t have turned the ball over, we would have won handily. Give them credit, they were physical, but my girls are going to fight and they are never going to quit. They fight and battle and when you have kids that do that, you can accomplish a whole lot of things.”

Turner (22-5) led 10-9 at the end of the first quarter and 16-15 at the half. Surprisingly, given the physical play of the Lady Falcons, it was the Empire girls who found themselves in foul trouble. Two starters picked up three fouls halfway through the second quarter, causing Powers to bring them to the bench.

The Lady Bulldogs (20-2) finally got some momentum in the third quarter. 

Sarah Vanderburg, who had not scored in the first half, dropped a three-pointer with 5:05 left in the third quarter to put Empire up 20-18. The Lady Bulldogs would never trail again.

Empire would go on to take a 29-23 lead heading into the fourth quarter.

The Lady Falcons would score the first six points of the final quarter to tie the game, but Kenzie Brackin, another Empire player who had not scored in the game, knocked down two crucial back-to-back shots from the high post position to give the Lady Bulldogs the lead for good with 4:28 remaining in the game.

The Lady Bulldogs would lead by as many as seven points with 1:55 to go. Turner came back to cut the lead to 39-37 and had a chance to tie with 46.8 seconds remaining, but two missed free throws kept Empire ahead. 

A basket by Kylie Lemons with 14 seconds to go put the Lady Bulldogs up by four points and all but ended the Lady Falcons’ chances.

It was a total team effort for Empire with seven different players scoring. Chazli Massey led the way for Empie with 10 points. Keira Pineda was next with nine points, followed by Lemons with seven, Chanlie Rochell and Brackin with six each, Vanderburg with three and Shyann Walker with two. 

Empire will face No. 5 ranked Amber-Pocasset (24-1) on Monday, 6 p.m., at the regional tournament in Union City. The Lady Panthers defeated Thomas-Fay-Custer in their regional opener, 59-40. Their only loss of the season came in an overtime loss to Class B No. 3 Lookeba-Sickles, 57-54, in overtime at the Arapaho Tournament on Jan. 11.