CHARLESTON, W.Va. – For the second straight game, Class AA No. 1 North Marion needed a second half rally to avoid elimination and stay alive in the high school girls basketball state tournament.
The Huskies (26-1) on Friday afternoon erased a 16-point third quarter deficit to beat No. 5 Frankfort in the semifinals 63-54.
“I’m glad we decided to show up for the second half,” said North Marion coach Mike Parrish. “We’re making a habit of having a bad first half and then coming out and playing well midway through the third and fourth quarter.”
North Marion trailed 44-28 with 2:30 to go in the third quarter before going on a 35-10 run to end the game.
“We started flying around, which is how we normally play,” Parrish said. “We waited until then to do that. Finally, (Frankfort) missed some shots. They were hitting a lot of shots in the first half from everywhere and we couldn’t buy one.
“They started missing some shots and we wore them down a little bit – I don’t think they had the legs to finish,” he continued. “That led to some long rebounds and run-outs for us.”
Leah Parrish hit one shot from 3 in the contest — but it was critical, putting North Marion on top 54-51 with 4:41 remaining.
“It was about time,” Parrish said. “She did hit a big one there. She hit a couple of big ones for us in the sectional game and we need her to hit shots for us.”
Cara Minor led North Marion with a double-double, scoring 20 points and grabbing 10 rebounds. Hannah Shriver scored 16 points in the win as well.
It was Minor who hit the final shot back on Wednesday that gave North Marion the come-from-behind win over No. 8 Bluefield.
“We obviously need to learn how to play the full 32 minutes hard,” Minor said. “But we really came together as a team in both games. That’s why we won – we hustled, we never gave up and I’m just proud of my team for being able to do that.”
Frankfort (19-8) was led by junior Abby Beeman who made a name for herself in Charleston after the Falcons’ quarterfinal win. Friday, she scored 15 points and collected nine assists in the loss.
“No one really knows much about us – they probably didn’t think we would make it down here either,” Beeman said when asked about her individual effort in Charleston. “I’m glad I kind of got my name out there, but we’ll definitely use this loss as motivation next year.”
It’s the first girls basketball championship game appearance for North Marion since 2011 when the school won its third straight Class AAA title.
The Huskies will face Wyoming East for the title on Saturday at noon.
“They have a great team and we have a great team,” Parrish said. “It’s going to come down to who shows up to play for a full game. They’re a hard matchup with the big girl inside.
“There’s no real matchup for her, so we have to do that by committee,” he continued. “They have kids who can shoot, so we have to close out on shooters, rebound and try to wear them down.”
MetroNews will have a full HD-video broadcast of the game at the MetroNews Channel of WVMetroNews.com.
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