Faulkner finals

St. Joseph and Vilonia each swept a pair of games on Thursday night as they advanced to face one another in the finals of the St. Joseph High School Classic on Saturday.

The Bulldogs (13-3) trailed by nine points in the final minute of the third quarter but they then outscored Marshall 17-5 in the fourth period to defeat the Bobcats, 54-46, at the Family Activities Center.

Marshall opened up a 10-point advantage in the first quarter before St. Joseph ran off nine straight points to cut the deficit to 20-19 with 3:15 remaining in the first half. The Bobcats would take a five-point lead going into the half, but the Bulldogs came out firing in the third period.

"We have been starting slow as of late and we got lucky tonight," Bulldog coach Brent Bruich said. "I guess it takes a long time for us to feel the other team out but we definitely did not play well in the first half of the ball game."

Nick Heathscott opened up the third period by scoring four straight points for St. Joseph then Josh Thessing added five more, including a 3 from the right corner that put the Bulldogs up 30-26, two minutes into the period.

Marshall would come right back with a 10-0 run of their own as Ethan Branson and Ryan Treadwell each added four points on the run.

St. Joseph's Daniel Antoine connected on a 3 from the top of the key just before the buzzer sound to cut the Bobcat lead to four heading into the final period of play.

After Matt Bates tied the game at 43-43 with a lay in, he gave the Bulldogs the lead for good as he drilled a 3 from the right wing whit just less than four minutes to play.

"He is a three year starter and he made some big plays for us tonight," Bruich said of Bates. "I thought that we executed our set plays well tonight but our quick hitters weren't working so we had to make some adjustments and I thought the guys did a good job of that."

St. Joseph made just enough of their free throws late in the game to ice it, but Bruich says that his team did not show what they could do at the charity stripe.

"We are much better free throw shooters than what we showed tonight," Bruich said. "I don't know if our legs were tired but we made a lot of mental mistakes that we have to get corrected because we are going to face a tough opponent in whoever we play on Saturday."

Bates and Josh Thessing led the way for St. Joseph with 17 points each while Heathscott added 14 points.

St. Joseph will face county rival Vilonia in the finals of the St. Joseph Invitational at 7:40 p.m. on Saturday.

LADY BULLDOGS

The Lady Bulldogs advanced to the senior girls finals as they defeated the Perryville Lady Mustangs, 46-39.

St. Joseph (12-4) opened up a 10-point halftime lead thanks to the second quarter performance of Katy Ashley Pauley. She connected on a pair of 3's and added four more from the free throw line.

"Ashley Pauley came on late in the second quarter and she hit two big 3's that helped open up a lead," St. Joseph coach Chris Kordsmeier said. "I thought that Stacia Gosnell did a real good inside and overall we played a pretty good team game."

The Mustangs refused to go away in the second half as they trimmed the deficit to eight at the end of the third and continued to apply pressure through out the fourth period.

"I knew it was going to be a hard fought, physical ball game and that is exactly what it was," Kordsmeier said. "We had to many turnovers but you have to give credit to them for putting pressure on us. They hit a couple deep 3's late but I thought we did a good job executing the press offense late in the game."

Pauley led the way for St. Joseph as she finished with 13 points while Gosnell added 11 and Anna Hiegel 10 for the Lady Bulldogs.

St. Joseph will take on Vilonia at 6:20 p.m. in the championship game on Saturday at the St. Joseph Family Activity Center.

EAGLES

The Vilonia Eagles got off to a rugged start but settled down as they coasted past Bigelow 58-42 to advance to the championship game on Saturday.

The Panthers led the first 14 minutes of the contest until Vilonia's Tim Sowder hit a 3 to tie the contest at 27-27 with 1:16 left in the opening half then Tyler Binam gave the Eagles a three point halftime lead with a trio of free throws.

"We came out flat and we just weren't ready to play," Vilonia coach Lance Davis said. "Bigelow shot the ball well in the first half but we let them penetrate and get the ball to the rim. Once we stopped the drive, they had to settle for jump shots and we took advantage."

Vilonia (5-1) came out of the half with a new found urgency as they outscored the Panthers 11-2 in the third to open a 12 point lead going into the final frame.

Tyler Binam managed just three points in the first period of play, but the Vilonia senior would explode for 28 more over the next three quarters to finish with 31 points.

"Their big 6'10" (player) caused us some problems inside early and we stopped taking the ball in the lane," Davis said. "I thought in the second half (Binam) picked it up and got his game going and that is when we were able to get the inside-out going for us."

Kevin Wyzgoski added 10 points for the Eagles while Cossey finished with seven for Vilonia.

"They have a very good basketball team and they have a lot of offensive weapons," Davis said of St. Joseph, who the Eagles will meet in the finals. "They are big inside with Heathscott and Nabholz and they have guys who can score on the perimeter. We can not get off to a slow start on Saturday like we did tonight because they have too good of a team for us to do that against."

LADY EAGLES

The Lady Eagles ensured that it would be an all Faulkner County championship game as they took care of the Marshall Lady Bobcats 60-42.

After getting off to a slow start, Vilonia (5-1) would score the final 12 points of the first half to take a 33-19 advantage going into intermission.

"I thought we shot the ball awful well, especially in the second quarter," Vilonia coach Alvin Riley said. "We were able to get out to a good lead and we did a good job covering who we needed to cover on defense."

Kayla Hawkins dominated the second period of play as she went on a 10-0 run by herself to open up the lead for the Lady Eagles.

"Kayla started off pretty slow, so we took her out and she seemed to gather herself," Riley said. :"She got several baskets to fall in a row and that is what she is capable of doing."

Vilonia would extend their lead to 21 at the end of the third period and then coast home from there.

Constance Alcon led the way for Vilonia as she scored 23 points while Hawkins scored 18 and Tiffany Bonds added 11 for the Lady Eagles.