Report by Wes Gwaltney
The Batesville Lady Pioneers and Pioneers had one thing on their minds entering Tuesday night, and that was completing the conference sweep of Greene County Tech in 5A East hardwood action.
One Batesville team was able to do so and the other had to settle for a season split.
In the opener of the varsity doubleheader, the Lady Pioneers would look to keep their perfect season alive as they would take on the Lady Eagles of GCT.
In the initial game between these two in January, the Lady Pioneers outscored the Lady Eagles, 26-6 in the opening frame, the second matchup would be far from the first.
The Lady Eagles (11-6) (4-4) would force several turnovers and a slow shooting start for the Lady Pioneers (18-0) (9-0) would leave Batesville with just a 15-6 lead at the first break.
Both teams would add points in bunches in the second as the Lady Pioneers would stretch their lead to eleven at halftime, 38-27.
The defense would be too much for GCT in the third as Batesville outscored the Lady Eagles 13-8 in the quarter before going on to grab the victory by a final of 69-50 over Greene County Tech.
Leading the scoring was three Lady Pioneers in double digits as Senior Izzy Higginbottom would score 25 points, Senior Kaylee Clark would add 11, Junior Taylor Rush would have 10 points and Senior London Cuzzort and Sophomore Kayla Ward would add nine and eight points respectively.
In the nightcap, the Pioneers would see a slow start put them quickly behind the eight balls as the Golden Eagles would soar to 26 points in the opening frame as Batesville would quickly fall behind 15 at the first break.
The struggles would continue into the second as the Pioneers (12-8) (3-6) would be outscored by three and would go into the halftime break down by 18.
Coming out of halftime, the offense would pick up for the Pioneers, but the Eagles would answer as the two teams would account for 39 points and the Golden Eagles(13-6) (4-4) would have their lead extend to 23.
In the final frame, the Pioneers would show a lot of heart as they came alive for 25 points, but too little too late as they wouldn’t be able to overcome the deficit and would fall to the Golden Eagles, 72-62.
Leading the Pioneers in scoring was Junior John Thomas Morgan with 15, Freshmen Caden Griffin with 14, and Senior John Paul Morgan and Junior Logan McSpadden would add 11 apiece.
After a long stretch of road games, both Pioneer teams will return to Pioneer Gymnasium Friday night as once again, both teams will look to complete the season sweep of the Paragould Rams.
JV games are set to get underway at 5 p.m. and the Varsity action is set to get underway around 6 p.m.
