The path may have been unlikely, but the destination was still sweet for the Lady Mavericks of Manchester who turned a semifinal loss in the MAIS Class 2A North State Tournament into a Class 2A title with a thrilling 42-40 win over River Oaks.
The Lady Mavs posted a 38-27 victory over Centreville in the semifinal round before the championship win over River Oaks.
“It was a great game and I have to give credit to River Oaks,” said MA head coach Dewayne Cupples. “They have some big, strong girls who play really well, and they ran us up and down the floor, and we just needed to answer them. We just tried to keep up the pace, and I was very proud of my girls.”
Manchester jumped out to a 12-9 first quarter lead, but River Oaks bounced back with a 14-8 second quarter to take a 23-20 lead at the half.
Manchester posted a 13-10 third quarter to tie the score at 33 heading into the final quarter.
The score teetered back and fourth during the last eight minutes of play before Manchester eventually walked away with the two-point win and the title.
Said senior guard Angel Rae Carpenter, “Honestly it doesn’t feel real and towards the end I was starting to get emotional because I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, we actually did this.’ We haven’t won a state championship since my eighth grade year so it means a lot being my senior year. We gave it our all and hustled our tails off. They got back on the court a lot and got a lot of points but we came back and we finished it, and that’s all that matters.”
Double figure scorers in the title game were Alley Grace Ables with 14 and Ellie Carpenter with 10.
Angel Rae Carpenter chipped in with eight, Maggie Day had four, and Selah Druery and Avery Austin rounded out the scoring with two points apiece.
