The Lady Pioneers and Pioneers had about as daunting of a task ahead of them Friday night as you can have as they opened 5A East Conference play taking on the defending state champion Jonesboro Lady Hurricane and Hurricane at Don Riggs Hurricane Gymnasium.
The ladies would open up the conference doubleheader action taking on the defending champion Lady Hurricane in a matchup that never disappointed one season ago. The Lady Pioneers would look to take it to the Lady Hurricane, but just wouldn’t seem to fall and Jonesboro would take the lead 14-6 into the first break. The Lady Pioneer offense would come alive behind recent College of the Ozarks signee Taylor Rush in the second quarter, but the Lady Hurricane would match and take a 29-19 lead into the halftime break. The second half would see Jonesboro tighten their defense, and they would take control and lead the rest of the way, defeating the Lady Pioneers 61 to 37.
Leading the way in scoring was Rush with 19 points, fellow senior Olivia Everetts would add 5, junior Abby Hurley would add 4, senior Emily Harrison would chip in 3, and Gabby Dockins, Camya Porter, and Hadley Cunningham would each add 2.
In the nightcap, the Pioneers would face the same daunting task as the ladies as they would take on the defending state champion Hurricane who are nationally ranked.
From the opening tip, Jonesboro would turn up the tempo with suffocating defense and would add the first basket of the game then never look back. Jonesboro led the whole ball game and would defeat the Pioneers by a final of 87-20.
Leading the Pioneers in scoring was sophomore Matthew Hendrix with 6 points, senior John Thomas Morgan with 4, senior Logan McSpadden and junior Kalen Young with 3 points each, and sophomore Thad Murphree would add 2 points.
The Lady Pioneers and Pioneers will now shift their focus to a Tuesday night showdown in Paragould where they will take on the Greene County Tech Golden Eagles in search of their first conference wins. Lady Pioneer action is set to tipoff around 6 p.m. with the boys game to follow and can be heard on 93 KZLE, online at WhiteRiverNow.com, and on the White River Now mobile app.
Article by Wes Gwaltney, The Voice of Pioneer Basketball, 93 KZLE
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