Game 19 – Spring Valley (W.Va.) 55, Bearden 49

(Game 19) Spring Valley (W.Va.) 55, Bearden 49

Spring Valley of West Virginia pulled what most observers felt was a major upset, knocking off Bearden of Knoxville 55-49 to advance to the tournament semifinal round Monday night.

Favored by some to win this tournament, the Lady Bulldogs suffered through a miserable shooting night (17-of-66 for 26 percent) and the wheels seemed to run off their scoring machine as the Wolves made a tremendous fourth quarter surge to rally from behind.

Bearden was ahead 26-21 at halftime and maintained what seemed to be a comfortable 36-28 lead going into the final stanza. But the Wolves began to hit shots while Bearden was still missing and making some mistakes, and the lead disappeared.

Spring Valley went up 42-41 and Ella Giles hit a 3-pointer to get the lead to 45-41. That was followed by a layup from Emma Edwards to build the lead to six and Bearden could not recover.

The Wolves were led by Brooklyn Ellis with 17 points. Bearden got 18 points from Natalya Hodge, 12 from Kendall Anne Murphy and 10 from Emma Rainey.

Bearden (49): Natalya Hodge 6-30 4-4 18, Hunt 2-4 0-0 5, Kendall Anne Murphy 4-15 3-6 12, McVeigh 0-2 0-0 0, Emma Rainey 4-11 0-0 10, Patel 1-2 0-0 3, Mills 0-2 1-2 1. TOTALS: 17-66 8-12 49.

Spring Valley (W.Va.) (55): Davis 1-4 0-4 2, Hutchison 1-9 0-0 3, Giles 3-10 0-0 9, Edwards 3-4 1-1 7, Brooklyn Ellis 5-12 3-4 17, Jackson 2-6 2-2 8, Daniels 4-12 1-2 9. TOTALS: 19-57 7-13 55.

3-Point Goals: BHS—7 (Hodge 2, Rainey 2, Hunt, Murphy). SV—10 (Ellis 4, Giles 3, Jackson 2, Hutchison).