Lady Hawks Thrill Fans With Clopton Tourney Championship

The Clopton Lady Hawks capped an exciting week of basketball with a thrilling come-from-behind victory to knock off top-seeded Monroe City to claim the championship hardware in their home tournament last week, 59-43.
Also in girl’s action it was (5) Silex taking consolation over (7) Louisiana, 47-31, and (3) Elsberry taking third place over (4) Van-Far, 46-35.
The Clopton Hawks claimed consolation over Louisiana on the boy’s side of the bracket, 54-46. In the third place game it was (4) Winfield beating (2) Elsberry by one point, 69-68 and (1) Monroe City winning the championship over (3) Van-Far, 57-43.
In the girl’s championship game, Clopton started with seven unanswered points as Jillian Lockard went to work dropping in nine along with a trey from Kaitlyn Kuntz and buckets from Taylor Akers and Caragan Lockard. Monroe City leaned on leading scorer Jada Summers and ended the first period ahead of Clopton by a point, 17-16.
The lead changed in the second, but Monroe went into the break with a 27-22 lead. Shortly into the third quarter, Clopton put the Lady Panthers back on their heels with a suffocating defense.
The Lady Hawks started racking up points off of their turnovers. Jillian Lockard popped off a pair of threes in her eight-point frame, Kuntz knocked down five, along with buckets from Caragan Lockard and Calynn Lockard.
The Lady Hawks were firmly in control as the fourth quarter started. Jillian Lockard drained three more field goals and went 3-4 from the line in addition to a pair of baskets from Kuntz to close out the win in definitive fashion.
Jillian Lockard ended the night with 28 points and earned the All-Tournament MVP award in addition to the Community State Bank TribCast Player of the Game. Kuntz ended the nig