NEVC girls eliminated from districts by Rich Hill

The Northeast Vernon County High School girls basketball team came closest to pulling off an upset in the first round of the Class 1 District 7 tournament Monday night at Rich Hill.

Unfortunately for the Lady Knights, round two will be all chalk after the Lady Tigers were able to fend NEVC off in the second half and advance to play top-seeded McAuley Catholic with a 43-33 win.

The Lady Knights (5-10) put up the most points of either team in a quarter when they dropped 15 in the second — seven of which came from sophomore Crae Hutchison — to knot the game up 19-19 at halftime.

But in the third quarter, NEVC missed four of its five free throws and gave up 14 points on the defensive end, which was enough of a head start in the second half for Rich Hill (12-12) to essentially seal the game and move on to the semifinals.

Freshman Ashlee Keith led NEVC with 14 points, followed by Hutchison with nine.