COVINGTON – The No. 8 seed Arcanum Lady Trojans dropped a 43-40 DIII opening round sectional tournament game to the No. 9 seed Middletown Madison Lady Mohawks in Thursday night basketball action.
“These are tough,” said Arcanum coach, Abbey Moore. “We all care about each other and we weren’t ready for it to be over.”
The Arcanum Lady Trojans jumped out to a 9-2 first-quarter lead with 4:44 showing on the board only to have the Middletown Madison Lady Mohawks battle back with a 14-7 run setting up a 16-16 tie after one complete. Brooke Anderson paced the Lady Trojans with eight first-quarter points.
A low-scoring second quarter had the Lady Mohawks taking the period by an 8-5 score sending the teams to the break with Madison holding a 24-21 advantage.
Arcanum continued to struggle at the offensive end scoring four third-quarter points while the Lady Mohawks were adding 10 points to the board to lead Arcanum 34-25 with one quarter to play.
Period No. 4 had Madison opening with a double-digit 36-25 lead at 7:12 in the fourth and would lead 38-30 with 3:00 remaining in the game. Arcanum battled back taking advantage of 10 fourth-quarter Caroline Long free throws in coming up short falling to the Lady Mohawks by three points.
“Our program is in a good spot,” Moore stated. “We have some young ones coming up in the program and our girls are motivated to work hard this off-season.”
Arcanum seniors, No. 2 Ashlyn Miller, No. 10 Rylee Leeper, and No. 23 Ava Gilbert played their final basketball game for the Lady Trojans.
“Our three seniors all hold a special place in my heart,” said Coach Moore. “Can’t say enough about my seniors Ash, Rylee, and Ava. They work hard every day and put a lot into this program. They all three are going to be very successful moving forward.”
Lady Trojans sophomore Caroline Long led Arcanum and all scorers with a game-high 18 points.
“These are hard ones for me,” Coach Moore concluded. “We talked in the locker room and sometimes that’s life. Life can throw us some crazy things which we all know, everybody goes through then. They’re tough times but I told them No. 1 is God. I told them I am going to go home a pray tonight and have Him give me guidance on how to handle this, how to get better, and how to move forward. I told them if I teach you one thing, that is always put Him first and I am good with that.”
BOXSCORE:
MIDDLETOWN MADISON 43, ARCANUM 40
MADISON – L. Carpenter 16, E. Webb 11, K. Wells 10, M. Bobbitt 2, A. Crim 2, T. Richardson 2 – TOTALS 16 5-10 2 43
ARCANUM – C. Long 18, B. Anderson 10, M. Noe 7, A. Miller 4, R. Leeper 1 – TOTALS 10 14-26 2 40
3-POINTERS
Madison 2 (E. Webb 1, L. Carpenter 1)
Arcanum 2 (B. Anderson 1, M. Noe 1)
SCORE by QUARTERS
16-08-10-09 43 Madison
16-05-04-15 40 Arcanum
