Gibson County girls top defending champ Union City

DYER – With more than half of the intermission left, the Gibson County girls basketball team emerged from the home locker room and began its warm up drills.

It wasn’t because the Lady Pioneers were trailing visiting Union City, although they did give up a five-point lead and only held a two-point lead thanks to a last-second bank shot from Erin Lannom.

It was because during the break Lady Pioneers head coach Mitch Wilkins didn’t have much to say.

“I’d said all I needed to say,” Wilkins said. “I told them, ‘It’s not an X’s and O’s thing. It’s really just are we going to be mentally and emotionally ready to play this second half.’”

Wilkins’ short speech seemed to work as Gibson County outscored Union City 18-9 out of the break en route to a 55-50 victory to remain undefeated.

Wilkins said one of the keys to the third period turnaround was being able to get top post player Justyce White back into the game. White sat the entire second period after picking up two fouls.

“When Justyce got a couple of quick fouls, that hurt us as well, when she had to go to the bench,” Wilkins said.

The defending Class 1A champions would not go quietly, cutting the lead to a two-possession contest on multiple occasions in the fourth quarter mainly due to Raven Fair’s 13 points over the final eight minutes.

With time winding down in the final period, the Lady Golden Tornadoes were forced to foul and their main target was Lady Pioneer junior guard Briana Fields. Fields knocked down 9-of-12 down the stretch, finishing the game with a team-high 21 points.

“I just wanted to win,” Fields said. “I did everything in my power to score and they fouled me, so I stepped up and made the shots for us.”

Fair finished with a game-high 26 points for Union City.

Wilkins said when you’re dealing with a player as good as Fair it is more about containment and forcing others on the opposing team to make shots.

“You just try to slow her down as much as you can,” Wilkins said. “We tried to deny her, obviously, as much as we could but tonight their other girls were making shots as well.

“We did force some other people to make some shots but when the game got close and the game got on the line I knew she was going to try to take it over. She’s a big-time player.”

But Wilkins also has a big-time player on his squad in Fields and he knew his player would come up clutch down the stretch as well.

“I was really surprised to see her miss one or two [free throws] there because she was on a rhythm and on a roll,” Wilkins said chuckling.

Boys

Union City 72, Gibson Co. 52

The Golden Tornadoes jumped out to a 21-8 lead after one quarter and outscored the Pioneers by 12 out of the halftime break. Gibson County was led in scoring by Mac Hicks, who finished with 21 points.

Josh Lemons, 425-9636