Ellington rebounds, gets boost from bench to beat Holcomb in C2 sectional playoff
ELLINGTON — The Whippets crashed the boards to crash Holcomb’s first-ever playoff appearance Wednesday night.
Ellington got 12 second-chance points, led by a double-double from Gretchen Hackworth and nine rebounds from sophomore sub Ella Morton, as the host beat the Hornets 58-49 in the MSHSAA Class 2 sectional playoff.
“I’m really proud of how tough we played with such a strong, big team,” said Morton.
Said Ellington coach David Burrows, “That’s the biggest thing I tell them is that rebounds is going to win ballgames. If they can win on the boards, more than likely they’re going to win the game.”
Ellington (20-5) will host Oran (17-3) at 1 p.m. Saturday with the winner advancing to the Show-Me Showdown in Springfield.
The Whippets will be making their fourth quarterfinal appearance in program history and first since their last playoff appearance in 2007. Ellington is 0-3 in quarterfinal games while Oran reached the semifinal last year and is in the playoffs for the eighth straight year.
The Eagles advanced with a 74-44 win over Viburnum.
“We’ve got to come in ready to go,” said Ellington sophomore Kaylee King, who scored 20 points.
“Oran is a really good team. It’s going to be really tough, but we’ve worked since we were little to get to this point, so we just got to give it our all.”
Hackworth, who scored a game-high 21 points with 10 rebounds, got a putback in the final second of the third quarter to put Ellington up 41-33.
The junior scored eight points, including another putback, during a 15-5 run to start the fourth as the Whippets built an 18-point advantage.
Ellington finished plus-eight on rebounds.
“That was the big, big thing,” Holcomb coach Alexa Stockton said.
The Hornets finished 15-8 and will lose seniors Gwendolyn Moore, Hannah Burk, Bailey Cupples and Macy Houart.
Houart scored 16 points to lead Holcomb, Cupples chipped in 10, with all but two coming in a fourth-quarter rally, while junior Selena Burress added 12.
Neither school fielded a girls team five years ago. When the Holcomb seniors were freshmen, the Hornets finished 3-18 while Ellington was 1-20.
Holcomb won the program’s first district title with a 20-point win over Hayti in the District 2 final.
“It’s pretty wild,” Stockton said of the two program’s recent history.
“It just shows you that if you’ve got girls that want to get after it and want to stick to it and work hard, that they can really do anything.”
Early foul trouble had Cupples on the bench with two fouls midway through the opening quarter after the Hornets scored the first six points.
Ellington also had early foul trouble with Dylan Price and Laura Gore picking up two early fouls. Gore, who finished with seven points and five rebounds, picked up her third early in the second quarter.
It got so bad for the Whippets, they switched to a zone defense.
“When we saw zone we were like ‘we didn’t prepare for this,” Stockton said.
Morton was also not on the scouting report, Stockton said.
“She was the one person that they put in to sub, that was our scouting report on her — their one sub,” Stockton added.
Morton scored just once in the fourth quarter but her rebounds and defense helped fill the void of Gore and Price, who still combined for 15 points and nine rebounds.
“She’s a perfect sixth man,” Burrows said of Morton.
After the teams traded 6-0 runs to start the game, Gore sank a 3-pointer in the final minute of the opening quarter to cut Holcomb’s lead to 10-9.
Hackworth’s 3 broke an 11-all tie that put Ellington ahead for good with 6:51 left in the half. The Hornets got within three twice before an 8-2 swing by the Whippets made it a 10-point game.
Burress sank a 3 in the final minute to cut Ellington’s lead to 29-22 at halftime.
The Whippets scored six points in the first half off turnovers but managed just four more as Holcomb finished with nine turnovers.
“They’ve got great intensity and I thought we handled it well,” Stockton said.
Ellington built a 13-point lead in the third quarter but the Hornets scored seven straight to get within six on a 3-pointer by Alyssa Brown.
Hackworth’s putback came with 0.2 of a second left as she was fouled. She scored the first points of the fourth after coming down with a rebound and going coast-to-coast for a 43-33 lead. The junior scored off her own miss and Morton later sank her only basket with a foot on the 3-point line to start an 11-2 run.
Holcomb scored seven straight points to get within 11 with 1:26 to play but Price sank two foul shots and the Whippets ran out the clock sending the orange-clad crowd into a frenzy.
“It was like the whole town came out and supported these girls,” Burrows said. “Something we’ve been wanting all year long and we hope they do the same come Saturday at 1.”