HANCEVILLE, Ala.- The no. 1 West Point Lady Warriors met no. 3 Good Hope in the Cullman County Basketball Tournament JV girls championship on Friday afternoon. In a tournament that’s been largely lacking in thrilling finishes, the Lady Raiders and Lady Warriors provided just that, with a close, tense game that went down to the final possession. With Good Hope missing the tying shot as the buzzer rang, the Lady Warriors clinched the county championship.
The first quarter showed signs of a great game, starting with a layup from West Point’s Camryn Faulkner to start a back and forth period. Camryn Faulkner traded buckets with Good Hope’s Sophie Konrad, who had a layup and a tough put back bucket through contact to tie the game at four. After a pair of free throws from Patton Fell put West Point up, Good Hope’s Ella Gossett responded with a contested three from the corner. With a final punch back to end the first, the Warriors’ Jaelyn Faulkner nailed a deep three to take a 9-7 lead into the second.
After a close first, the second quarter looked like a game that could potentially get away from Good Hope. The duo of Faulkners became a thorn in the Lady Raiders’ sides, taking turns scoring baskets and picking off passes. With turnovers becoming an issue, Good Hope began playing tight, struggling with ball movement and getting open looks. The Faulkners, along with Laklin Shadix, scored all but three of West Point’s 26-second quarter points, with the other three belonging to Kealie Harbison. The Lady Raiders’ Ella Gossett played her best all-around game this tournament, securing the perimeter, but also finding the basket to keep Good Hope alive. She Scored three of the last four buckets for the Lady Raiders closing the first half, mitigating what was nearly a disastrous quarter for Good Hope. With a Gossett shot finding the net at the buzzer, West Point led 27-16 at halftime.
Feeling the squeeze of West Point’s quick scoring ability, Good Hope came out firing, and hitting. After a pair of Jaelyn Faulkner free throws opened the half, Good Hope responded with a pair of Lucie Adam threes followed Ella Davis pickpocketing a ball handler and taking it coast to coast for a layup. The Warriors responded, with Kealie Harbison drilling a deep ball to keep the lead at double digits, leading 32-22. For number of minutes, the teams went back-to-back, with the Faulkners driving for lays, then Gossett and Davis finding the basket. With the game still at ten points, Good Hope’s heater began. First, Gossett hit a deep three from the right elbow, and on the next possession, she drove and kicked it out to Lexi Marshall, who also hit from deep. After a Harbison lay, Gossett went to the line, hitting one. At the end of the third, Good Hope wasn’t all the way back, but Gossett’s ball movement and pair of buckets had brought them back to a 42-35 deficit, threatening to make a run.
The Raiders would stay hot from deep, opening the quarter with two threes from Adams and Konrad to make it just a three point game at 44-41. The Faulkners would take over once again, driving to the rim and inviting contact, which they often drew fouls on. The pair would shoot a combined 10 free throws in the period, hitting nine, and the only other score from the Warriors came on a Camryn Faulkner layup. Their affinity for driving inside coupled with Good Hope’s desperation late led to foul trouble, with both Konrad and Adams having four fouls towards the end of the game. Adams used her strength to get inside, and put in a layup to make it just a 49-48 West Point lead, with the early signs of a comeback becoming reality. Jaelyn Faulkner would draw a foul and went to the line, hitting both free throws to go back up three. On an inbounds pass, Ella Davis wedged her way into the paint, finishing over two defenders to make it a one point game again at 51-50. On the inbound for West Point, a referee ruled that Harbison had stepped out, giving Good Hope a chance at the lead with 30.3 seconds to go. The Lady Raiders would go scoreless on the possession, and a pair of free throws from Camryn Faulkner made it, once again, a three point game, up 53-50. With six seconds to go, the Lady Raiders took their time, calling multiple timeouts to get a play. The play worked, with Gossett driving inside and kicking out to Adams, who would miss the shot, icing a West Point championship victory.
Leading the Lady Warriors was Camryn Faulkner with 18 points, two rebounds and an assist. Jaelyn, not far behind, scored 14, grabbed a rebound and dished out three assists. Shadix had a complete game, scoring eight, grabbing five boards, dishing out two assists and putting up one block and steal each.
For the Lady Raiders, Gossett led with 14 and grabbed two rebounds and assists. Konrad, who sat much of the fourth in foul trouble, put up 13 points, 10 rebounds, two assists and a steal. Scoring ten each were Adams and Davis. Davis put up 3 rebounds and a block, and Adams had four boards, an assist and a block.
