Gilbert Praises Players As ‘Group Of Overachievers’
Parry McCluer High School’s potential run through the Region 1C girls’ basketball tournament came to an abrupt halt when the Fighting Blues ran into a buzzsaw from Grayson County.
The Blue Devils harried the hosts into 28 turnovers and converted 16 of those miscues into points to score a 50-25 victory in the tourney’s quarterfinal round Tuesday of last week in Buena Vista.
“I thought maybe the lights were a little bit brighter,” said PM head coach Adam Gilbert. “This was the first time many of them had been in a region tournament, and it took us a little while to get settled into the ball game. We held our own defensively, but we struggled on the offensive end.”
The Blues (10-13), the second seed from the Pioneer District, kept it close early in the contest despite turning the ball over on six of their first seven possessions, trailing just 8-4 after the first quarter, and they tied the game at 8-8 with the first two buckets of the second stanza. Emory Slagle picked up a steal and an easy layup for the first; then Caroline Watts hit a turnaround jumper in the paint to knot the score with 5:16 remaining before intermission.
From that point, it was all Grayson County. The Blue Devils broke the tie when Karlie Hawks swiped the ball and converted an easy bucket. Madelyn Phipps turned two more PM turnovers into baskets, and when Kinsey Parks hit a jumper late in the quarter, Grayson County took an 18-8 lead into intermission.
“Even with the possessions we had, I looked up at one point and we were tied,” Gilbert said. “We gave ourselves a chance defensively. We did a good job forcing them to take contested shots. They were a step quicker than us in spots, but that was the nature of the beast in this game. Hopefully, we’ll learn from it and be better because of it.”
PM went the final 5:16 of the second quarter without a point and didn’t score again until 3:12 was left in the third period as Watts hit a 3-pointer. That stretch of nearly 10 minutes was the difference in the game.
As a team, the Blues connected on only 9-of-24 field goal attempts (37.5 percent), including just 1-for-8 from three-point range. Grayson County didn’t shoot well either, going 20-for-57 from the field (35.1 percent), but the Blue Devils turned those 28 PM turnovers – 11 in the third quarter – into 34 points.
Ten of those points off of PM errors came in the first five minutes of the third period as Grayson County scored the first 12 points of the second half. Phipps drained a pair of 3-pointers as bookends to the third quarter run, and the 10-point halftime lead ballooned to 30-8 with 3:30 to play in the third.
The Blues did have a brief flurry to start the final period as Slagle and Watts found the basket to trim the deficit to 37-19 with 5:58 remaining. But another long scoring drought ended any hopes of a late rally as the Blues managed only one bucket the rest of the way.
Watts led the Blues with nine points, while Josie Martinez tallied six points and pulled down nine rebounds. Slagle finished with four points and seven boards.
Phipps led the way for Grayson County, pouring in 21 points. Hawks added 14 markers for the Blue Devils, who ended their season at 18-9 overall after an 83-37 loss in the Region 1C semifinals to George Wythe (215), the Region 1C runner-up.
The Blues will graduate two senior guards: Kayleigh Ramsey, a first-team all-district selection, and Katie Tomlin. PM had a solid season, going 5-5 in the Pioneer District to earn the third seed in the district tournament and then upsetting secondseeded Eastern Montgomery in the semifinals before falling to top seed Narrows in the finals.
Of his players, Gilbert, wrapping up his 16th year as PM’s head coach, said, “They are a group of overachievers. On paper, we should not have been playing a home game in the first round of the region tournament. The progress they made, even going back to May, has been incredible. If we stay on that trajectory, I really do think we are going to be where we want to be. I’m extremely proud of them.”
PM HEAD coach Adam Gilbert talks to his players during a timeout. (Ronnie Coffey photo)
FIGHTING BLUE junior guard Emory Slagle takes the ball around the perimeter while closely guarded. Slagle scored four points and pulled down seven rebounds. (Ronnie Coffey photo)
