Lady Redbirds take on New Haven with trip to state on line

The talent was there coming into this season for the East Carter Lady Redbirds — and with it the expectation of a potential Class 2 girls state basketball run.

Sure, they will play in Saturday’s quarterfinal at the Farmington Civic Center against New Haven (16-10) and for a chance to make it to the Class 2 state semifinals in Springfield.

But, they were the ultimate example of a team that some might wonder just how good they could be.

The Lady Redbirds started the 2022-23 season hot with an undefeated run all the way to the Lady Royals Christmas Classic final, where they fell to Doniphan by two free throws with less than a second left.

Then East Carter lost three of its next four after Christmas and four of seven before winning four straight. Then Neelyville came calling with an impressive win over the Lady Redbirds in the Ozark Foothills Conference semifinals.

East Carter hasn’t lost since.

The Lady Redbirds have rattled off seven straight wins, including three in the district and sectional rounds, and all in different ways — a shootout, a hybrid of styles, or an old-fashioned grind-it-out defensive battle. The latter came Tuesday when East Carter got revenge with a 46-38 win over Neelyville to get here.

“We kind of went through things that happened at the reason and they may not have looked good at the time, but they paid off,” East Carter head coach Angela Rodgers said. “We went through a little break with the snow so we had to sit around and not play a while, then we played that Neelyville (loss) and that was eye-opener for us and we haven’t lost after that. Losing the first game to Bunker was a rough spot, but we got to play them again (and win).

“I’d rather take those losses and still be playing right now. Nobody plays perfectly early and that Doniphan game was a (good performance) in a loss and we had some good games we lost. We were playing good basketball and then we couldn’t translate that into the Doniphan game or the (first) Ellington game.”

Senior Brooklyn Kearbey, who has lit the nets for back-to-back 26-point performances in the last two games, said once the Christmas and snow breaks went into the rearview mirror, the Lady Redbirds found their groove again.

“We talked about it and did what we needed to do to fix everything,” Kearbey said. “We had to fix our team spirit and get together and have good attitudes. We were so ready to play basketball (in the beginning of the season) and it went into our games.

“We have definitely gotten smoother (than) at the beginning of the year, a good attitude is coming back to us.”

Kearbey also said the team is having a lot of fun right now.

One of those ways is watching the East Carter posts like junior Breanna Dohleman and sophomore Parker Golden not only knock people around outside, but also put additional pressure on the opposition by virtue of getting up and down the floor quite often at pace and ahead of their interior counterparts.

“Putting in the work overall has paid off,” Dohleman said. “I feel like I’ve done it a lot better than last year in beating the other team down the floor for those fastbreak passes.”

That played a big part in the team’s district final win against Ellington, as she and Golden pounded the floor on the break and beat a smaller team down the court for a number of point-blank conversions.

“We definitely didn’t let them get into our heads and knew the circumstances of if we lost it could have been our last game,” Dohleman said. “We aren’t ready to finish. By far (that was their best game). We definitely had a lot of energy and the environment around us was great. Our teamwork paid off.”

For Golden, she believes the team has found its maturity and it has paid off for the team — and especially between her Dohleman and sophomore Anna Crowley, who have continued to excel inside as the year has progressed.

“This year we play with a lot of energy and play fast,” Golden said. “The Neelyville game we came out slow and that’s not common for us. We like to go, go, go.

“After the (Neelyville loss) we saw every game that we were going to win. For the Ellington game, we said we were going to do what we needed to win and we did it.”

Golden said the team would like to make history, but for now, it’s about playing the opponent in front of the Lady Redbirds.

“We just want to win this one to get to the next,” Golden said. “I don’t really think about losing, even if it is a possibility. I just take these as steps and obviously, we are thinking about state.

“But we are thinking about these games first.”

New Haven is similar in its own right as the Lady Shamrocks started off the season in non-exhilarating fashion, going 10-10, before winning their last six games, including a 60-51 sectional win over St. Vincent.

Rodgers said the team and coaches have watched New Haven to get a better understanding of their next opponent.

“They are compatible in size, although they aren’t as tall, and they like to slow the ball down and pass it around on offense,” Rodgers said. “They are a lot more patient on offense than we are. Our goal is to speed it up and hopefully get them to play at our tempo.”

Tipoff is at noon Saturday in Farmington.