Late Monday night had fans stressing at Van-Far.
The Lady Indians played their quarterfinal Class 2 Districts 5 tournament game down to the wire against Louisiana but lost 46-42. Van-Far …
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Late Monday night had fans stressing at Van-Far.
The Lady Indians played their quarterfinal Class 2 Districts 5 tournament game down to the wire against Louisiana but lost 46-42. Van-Far finishes with a 12-14 record for the program’s most wins since 2012.
Van-Far went into the fourth quarter down 37-33 and were down four points again in the final minutes to a school that has eliminated Van-Far three straight years. Head coach Heather Minter said every point matters in close games, and it didn’t help that the Lady Indians went 8-for-18 from the free throw line.
“I told them when we walked out of the locker room that I felt like they left everything out on the court tonight and they did everything they could,” Minter said. “When you look at (the free throws), that’s a huge stat. That’s the ballgame.”
Minter said this result is “tough to swallow,” but Van-Far executed well other than a few times missing close shots and allowing some Louisiana players to hit key shots. Kamry Ahart led the Lady Bulldogs (17-9) with 13 points, but the two that Minter said Van-Far was focused on — Trinity Chatman and Reece Wommack — finished with 11 and 10 points, respectively.
Van-Far’s defense stalled Louisiana for a while in the second and fourth quarters. Louisiana didn’t have a field goal until the final two minutes of the second quarter and didn’t have a bucket until halfway through the fourth quarter. In both quarters, Van-Far managed to take a lead momentarily.
“That’s our kids buckling down and playing like we know they are capable of playing,” Minter said. “We told them when we had a little shootaround this afternoon, ‘Just leave everything out on the court.’ It sucks we lost, but I told the kids that, ‘Overall, I’m happy with them and proud of them.’”
Elliott Utterback was active for Van-Far two games after recording her 1,000th career point, finishing with 23 points to lead the floor, while Chloe Zumwalt had nine points. Utterback hit a jumper that gave Van-Far its final lead 38-37 in the fourth quarter.
The team’s lone senior, Trinity Skwirtz, went out on a high note by grabbing eight rebounds and showing good effort in her final game as a Lady Indian.
“That’s the thing with Trin,” Minter said. “She’s always going to make those hustle plays for us, too. That’s why Trin plays a lot for us.”
Van-Far’s future also was battling in the trenches as sophomore Aviana Early finished with nine rebounds.
“Avi might not score for us, but she makes huge hustle plays for us,” Minter said. “That’s what we got to have. We’re looking for big things from her next year.”
The future is bright for the Lady Indians, Minter said, as Van-Far has plenty to look forward to next season. With most of the roster returning, Minter said she believes the team is in a good position to shoot even higher after witnessing them be in a better position to win games this season. Other than state No. 2 Clopton and 21-win Paris, who are both in Van-Far’s district, the Lady Indians didn’t lose by large margins.
“We feel like we’ve laid another foundation down, and we’re headed in the right direction,” Minter said. “We do feel like we let two games go that we should’ve won, but overall, if you look at our record from last year and a lot of our scores, we were getting beaten by 20 and 30 points last year. We competed in every game this year. That’s all you can ask for from your kids.”
