JACKSON - Glancing at the tournament bracket on Monday, Durwin Carpenter pointed out how four good teams would see their seasons end in the first round of the State AAA Tournament.
At the time, the Pillow Academy coach had no idea his team would be one of them, but that's exactly what happened as the Lady Mustangs were out-hustled in a 42-39 loss to Oak Hill here Wednesday at Jackson Academy. The loss ends the Lady Mustangs' season at 21-13 and keeps them out of next week's MPSA Overall Tournament for just the second time in Carpenter's 12-year tenure at the school.
"This is tough because the girls worked so hard and deserved it. We just didn't get it done today," said a stunned Carpenter. "Hopefully, this will burn in our girls and make them work harder for next season."
The Lady Mustangs played with great intensity last week en route to claiming the Division I AAA championship but seemed to have a letdown against Oak Hill, the No. 4 seed from Division II.
"We could've overlooked Oak Hill a little bit. We tried to stress to the girls this week about being mentally ready to play," Carpenter said. "We just seemed to be a step slow and never got in a rhythm.
"Oak Hill came out with a lot of intensity, and we had no defensive intensity and we weren't aggressive offensively."
Oak Hill (23-9) led 22-19 at the half.
The Lady Raiders led by as many as seven in the third period and held a 33-29 advantage heading into the fourth.
PA had two starters (Mary Elizabeth Harper and Lauren Coleman) foul out in the first two minutes of the final period.
Oak Hill pushed its lead back to seven early in the fourth, but Pillow then went on a 10-1 run to take the lead at 39-37 with 1:48 left in the contest. Five different PA players scored during that run.
The lead, however, was short-lived as Lindsey Trenor drained a 3-pointer to put Oak Hill up 40-39. Jordan Patterson pushed the lead to three on a pair of free throws with 14 seconds remaining.
Pillow had a chance to force overtime in the final seconds, but Betsy Nelson's 3-pointer rolled around the rim and fell out.
The Lady Mustangs hit just 13 of 40 shots from the field (32.5 percent), including 1 of 10 from 3-point range. They were 10 of 16 from the charity stripe.
Harper, Pillow's lone senior, finished with a team-high 10 points and six rebounds. Sophomore point guard Morgan Woods had nine points and five steals.
Oak Hill center Beth Duke pumped in a game-high 20 points.
Carpenter said his girls were crushed by the loss but that winning last week's tournament made things a little easier to handle.
"We had a young team, but we didn't except that. Our girls had an outstanding showing last week, and that's still something to be proud of," Carpenter said.
