Lady Bears Upset Liberty to Advance In District Tournament

The Ava Lady Bears pulled a huge upset in the first round of the Class 3, District 10 Tournament at Mtn. Grove last Saturday night, defeating No. 3 seed Liberty, 56-47.

When the Ava girls hosted Liberty in SCA play back on Feb. 4, the Lady Eagles defeated the Ava girls by 20 points, 51-31.

With the win on Saturday, Ava advanced to the semifinals game on Wednesday night where they would take on Willow Springs, another SCA team the Lady Bears had recently faced at home. That meeting on Feb. 18 resulted in a 50-41 win for Willow.

On Saturday night the Ava girls came out of the dressing room firing on all cylinders, pulling out to an early lead and never looking back.

Jacey Swofford scored 14 first quarter points and led all scorers in the game with 27 total.

Freshman guard Ashton Bewley also had a strong night offensively, finishing in double digits with 13 points.

Liberty’s Piper Francis, who led the Lady Eagles with 16 points on the night, swished a shot from 3/4 length of the floor at the buzzer to pull the Eagles within 24-16 after one quarter of play. Ava led 30-25 at the half.

Others scoring for Ava in the Liberty game were Hope Evans 6, Kiaunna Snow 4, Bailey Loge 3, Lauren Mendel 2, and Kaylee Evans 1.

Swofford had 19 points to lead Ava in the Senior Night contest with Willow Springs here last Thursday night.

Bewley and Mendel had eight points each for Ava and Loge and Snow each scored two points.

Beth Sherbo led Willow Springs with 15 points.