The Lady Pirates season closed last night as they fell in the  Championship game of the PCL Tournament with a 32-28 loss at the hands of Walnut Grove.

After beating the Tigers by 17 in their opening season game, the Lady Pirates saw a different type of defense from Walnut Grove and some early foul trouble that put Macks Creek in a hole that turned out to be too much to overcome.  A triangle and two defense against Brooklyn Duggan and India Willis, along with India Willis (21 points a game) being tagged with 3 fouls in the first three and a half minutes of the game, held the high flying Lady Pirates in check during the first quarter and put Macks Creek in a hole with a 9-3 deficit at the end of the first.

In the second quarter, Michelle Egan picked up her third foul and then Emma Seaholm (10 points a game) was hit with her 4th foul just before halftime.  Despite a very lopsided foul total (9 to 3 at the end of the first quarter), the Lady Pirates showed a lot of fortitude by clawing back into the game by halftime thanks to 9 second quarter points by Willis who was playing with 3 fouls, and cut the deficit to 17-19 at halftime.

The second half saw more of the same as Emma Seaholm fouled out 34 seconds into the second half, Michelle Egan and India Willis picked up their 4th fouls, while Duggan, Ashlee Klingslick and Brianna Taylor were all three hit with 2 fouls each.  With Seaholm out, Walnut Grove pounded the boards on their way to 11-2 third quarter and pushed their lead to 30-19.  A quick bucket by the Tigers extended their lead to 32-19 at the 5:53 mark of the fourth quarter and it looked as if the Lady Pirates might just fade away.  NOT THESE LADIES.

Despite some incredible adversity, they proved that they will be a team to be reckoned with, as they fought tooth and nail and completely shut down Walnut Grove's offense for the remainder of the game.  Down by the same score with 3:39 to go, Willis hit 3 of 4 free throws, Klingslick made some timely steals and then Duggan hit back to back three pointers, but it wasn't quite enough as the Lady Pirates lost for only the second time this year and ended their season with a second place finish in the Tournament.  Despite playing the entire game in foul trouble Willis ended up with 14 points on the night, Duggan had 9 with 4 assists and Klingslick added 2 with 6 steals. 

This team will certainly makes some other PCL teams nervous when thinking about next year as the Lady Pirates return 6 of their 9 players and 4 of their leading 5 scorers.  Congratulations on a great season.  Second Place PCL Tournament and PCL League champs with a record of 13-2.  The future of Macks Creek Lady Pirate basketball is very bright.