CLINTON – The Presbyterian Christian team just watched from its bench as Madison Ridgeland-Academy received its championship trophy.
“That’s a respect thing,” PCS coach Drew Smith said. “I think you have to respect your opponent for winning. It’s something I would always do.
“I would hope their team would respect us if we won.”
Yet what fed into the pain of losing the MAIS Overall State Championship was that game had slowly slipped away from the Lady Bobcats in the 42-29 loss to MRA on Wednesday at A.E. Wood Coliseum.
It was the fourth time this season that PCS faced the Patriots as the Lady Bobcats went 3-1, losing three straight times. And prior to the overall championship, PCS fell to MRA in overtime in the MAIS 6A title game.
“It’s hard to (play a team four times),” Smith said. “Obviously, they know us really well, and we know them really well. They have us scouted up, and we have them scouted up. We just didn’t the most of our opportunities like they did. They hit big shots, and we didn’t.”
PCS held a 16-8 lead by the end of the first quarter and went on a 13-4 run after briefly trailing 4-3.
Despite leading-scorer Addyson Sherer scoring 15 points in the first, the Lady Bobcats’ offense began to derail after post-player Meyah Doyle picked up two fouls early on.
“We had a really good start,” Smith said. “We jumped eight points at the end of the first quarter. After the third quarter, we really struggled offensively. When Meyah gets into foul trouble, it hurts, and it hurt us again. She had two fouls in the first quarter, and it really limits us offensively when she goes out.
Doyle had five fouls by the end of the game and was held scoreless.
“We are not going to win games like this if she doesn’t score,” Smith said. “When she goes out, we lose post presence on defense and post presence on offense. Addyson had 22 points, but we just didn’t get production from anybody else.”
MRA pulled back into the game with a 10-0 run to open the second quarter, but a pair of buckets by Sherer kept the game tied at 20-20 heading into the half.
Foul trouble proved to be the difference in the second half, as it allowed the Patriots to separate. In total, MRA went 18-for-25 on the free throw line, while PCS did not take a single free throw shot.
MRA held a 29-22 lead in the third quarter, but again Sherer hit back-to-back shots in the third quarter and then hit a 3-pointer to tie the game at 29-29. Sherer finished with a game-high of 22 points, while MRA was led by Ella Wesley Davis, who scored 15 points.
After Sherer’ bucket, PCS’ offense sputtered and did not score another point, which led to MRA outscoring the Lady Bobcats 13-0 in the fourth quarter.
“I don’t think it was our defense that hurt us,” Smith said. “I thought we were pretty good defensively. But our poor offense led to easy shots for them. We ended with 16 turnovers, but they had 21, so it’s not our defense. We’ve struggled with that against them and being patient enough to get a good look. When our offense breaks down like it did, we really struggled."
Despite the loss, PCS finished the season 33-6 and reached its first overall title game in eight years.
“We made it to the last game of the season,” Smith said. “We are obviously one of the top two teams in the whole state. Two years ago, we couldn’t get out of the first round of the playoffs, so here we are two years later with 33 wins and in the overall championship game. We had opportunities to win it, but against a good team, you can’t afford to make a lot of mistakes.
“It’s hard to swallow, but I’m proud of the girls. It was a good year.”
