Carterville pulls away from Marion in regional semis

CARTERVILLE -- Nearly midway through the third quarter, the Marion High School girls basketball team trailed a talented Carterville squad by just three points and leading scorer Abby Bayer had just one point.
But after Bayer scored that one point, which turned out to be her only one of the game, Carterville went on a quick 19-1 run and rolled to a 44-27 win Tuesday night in the semifinals of the Carterville 3A Regional tournament.
Marion's first winning season since 2011 ends at 16-13.
"The kids are really disappointed but we had a really good year," said Marion first-year coach Mike Manfredo. "It's been a while since we've been able to compete at this level. We're going to dearly miss our three seniors but the young kids are eager and we hope to have a good offseason."
Those three seniors were Jasa Bell, Cassandra Woods and Bayer.
Bayer, who surpassed the 1,000-point mark earlier this season, had 19 points in Monday's win over Massac County but her only point Tuesday came at the foul line with 4:48 left in the third quarter, when the Lady Lions led just 23-20.
"Our defense did a really good job," said Carterville coach Matt Crain. "They've played her growing up and we just wanted to push her outside of her comfort zone and make her shoot a little farther out. We did a really nice job of doing that and keeping her from driving the baseline."
Carterville scored the next 10 straight points after Bayer's free throw, starting with a layup by Lexi Swalls. Abbey Crain hit a 3-pointer, Megan Barton took in a layup after a turnover and Hanna Schulmeister also canned a triple before the third quarter ended.
The run continued in the fourth as McKenzie Rogman, Montana Taylor and Jeniah Thompson also supplied points along with Crain and Barton to help the Lady Lions surge ahead 42-21 with 4:25 remaining.
"I loved the pace of the play and we had it slowed down a little bit, but when they get in transition, we're in trouble," Manfredo said. "We had the score close and low at the half and they went on a run and we couldn't get anything to drop in the second half.
"If you had told me before the game we would hold them to 44 points, I would've said good we have a shot. But we just didn't produce and put the ball in the hole."
Marion's Jasa Bell and Jordan Turner combined for 15 points in the first half to help hold Carterville to a 20-17 lead at the break. But neither scored in the second half -- Bell finished with eight points and Turner had seven and were the team's leading scorers.
Abbey Crain was Carterville's only player in double figures with 16 points. Barton and Thompson both had six and Rogman had five.
Despite the lopsided final score, Marion certainly gave Carterville a fight for 2-1/2 quarters.
"It's that time of year," Matt Crain said. "People are going to fight and scratch and claw. You can't take anything lightly. It wasn't that we were doing anything bad. Marion played pretty well and they played with confidence. But our defensive intensity picked up and we got a few runouts and it led to that big run.
"Thankfully it did."
Carterville (24-5) advances to face Murphysboro (18-10) in the championship game Thursday night. It will be their first meeting of the season. Murphysboro downed Olney Richland County in the other semifinal behind 22 points from Kayla Walker.