Class 1 sectional notes from Bluff

DAR/Paul Davis

Those are the shoes worn by Bakersfield's Brooke Lair during the MSHSAA Class 1 sectional playoff Tuesday night at Poplar Bluff's Peters Gym.

Lair and the Lady Lions roared back from an 11-point deficit in the third quarter, then rallied in the fourth by scoring the final 10 points for a 47-44 win over Naylor.

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Bakersfield coach Tesa Nelson told me Lair's old-school kicks are her uncle's from when he played in high school. The 5-9 senior also has an old-school game to go along with the look. She scored eight points but helped her team with steals, assists and rebounds and even asked the scorekeeper how many time outs her team had coming out of a break late in the game.

Bakersfield (19-8), which has now upset fourth and eighth ranked teams to reach the quarterfinal, faces Delta (18-8) at 2:45 p.m. Saturday at the Bess Activity Center on the campus of Three Rivers Community College in Poplar Bluff.

Naylor had its chances late but struggled to score in the second half. The Lady Eagles hit 7-of-30 shots after taking a 26-20 halftime lead.

Naylor had just eight players and the longer court at Peters Gym was a factor for both teams. (Courts can range in length with the difference made up in the middle of the court between the 3-point line and midcourt line. Many smaller schools have gyms with shorter courts. A basketball court can range from 74-feet long to no greater than 94 feet according to the NFHS rules.)

"The girls played hard," Naylor coach Gene Deckard said. "Once you run out of conditioning you make some bad choices and I believe we made some bad passes because we were tired."

In the boys game, Eminence outrebounded Clarkton by 21 for an 89-62 win.

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The Red Wings (25-2) will play Scott County Central at 1 p.m. Saturday at the Bess Activity Center in the quarterfinal.

Eminence coach Pete McBride said he's seen the Braves play a few times but did not attend the SCC-Sikeston game at the Show Me Center. McBride was going but the Red Wings had their conference tournament championship rescheduled for that night.

"They're awesome," McBride said of the Braves. "They've got a great team and we know we've got a huge challenge but I've got a group of winners. They just win."

Eminence's two losses were against Class 2 schools Thayer, 54-52 back on Jan. 13, and South Iron, 76-61 on Feb. 10. Both teams play tonight in the Class 2 sectionals.

Eminence was led by Austin Brewer's 21 points. The 6-3 senior is the team's leading scorer and rebounder but missed some of the season, McBride said, after an accidental shooting in which Brewer was shot in the leg.

"He actually just got back for us a couple of weeks ago," McBride said. "Just now getting back to 100 percent so our kids have really responded all year."