DIVISION III GIRLS: Debra Kingston helps White Pine rally past Lincoln County

White Pine junior Debra Kingston waited for the right time to take over against Lincoln County in Friday’s Division III Southern League semifinal at Spring Valley.

Kingston scored five of her team’s seven points early in the fourth quarter to lead the Bobcats to a 44-36 win over the Lynx. White Pine (16-3) will face Needles (24-5) in the region final at 2:30 p.m. Saturday at Spring Valley.

After her sister Britney tied the game at 26-26, Kingston’s nifty spin move under the basket drew a foul, and her three-point play ignited the Bobcats. From there they went on a 10-3 run to move ahead 39-31 with 2:28 left in the game.

“I knew that I had to be strong for my team, and I had to go out there and just do my job, and get rebounds like I know I can, and the buckets I know I can make,” said Kingston, who scored eight of her game-high 12 points in the fourth quarter.

Kingston, who also had nine rebounds, conceded her team has played lackluster first halves but it was only a matter of time before the Bobcats would start playing their game.

“Just seeing the effort she gave really got our offense going,” White Pine coach Krystal Smith said. “The offensive rebounds and the and-one really sparked us there … and I think our team thought ‘we’re OK now that our big got us going.’ You kind of just felt everyone take a deep breath and think ‘OK, we’re back in charge.’”

After falling behind by as much as seven in the first half, and seeing her team shoot just 6-for-25 from the field (24 percent), Smith reminded her team of three key components they’d been missing.

“We really weren’t playing the game we prepared for,” Smith said. “We knew that we had to break their press, we knew that we had to defensively box out and we knew we had to put our free throws in. I reassured them those were the three keys to our keys in the second half.”

The Bobcats ended up outrebounding Lincoln County 44-24 for the game, and outscoring the Lynx 26-15 in the second half. White Pine’s defense limited Lincoln County to 14 of 60 shooting (23.3 percent) from the field.

Kadi Finicum added nine points and eight rebounds for White Pine, and Britney Kingston had eight points and five boards.

Savannah Harr scored 10 points to lead the Lynx (19-7). Hannah Hafen finished with eight points and five rebounds, and teammate Tandi Tibbits contributed with seven points and five boards for Lincoln County.

Needles 50, The Meadows 36 — Jasmine Mejia had 17 points and 13 rebounds to lead Needles over The Meadows.

The Meadows shot a dismal 4 of 30 (13.3 percent) in the second and third quarters to fall behind, 35-24, and never recovered.

Jane Antone added 14 points and eight rebounds, and Paige Lewis had nine points for Needles.

Delaney Gosse had 15 points to lead The Meadows (12-8), which got 12 points from Bailey Gosse.