Melbourne caps dominant season with lopsided win over Bigelow to notch fourth straight Class 2A girls basketball championship, 65th consecutive win

By Jeff Halpern I Photos by Tommy Land

HOT SPRINGS — The Melbourne Lady Bearkatz continued their display of perfection in winning their fourth consecutive state championship and extending its winning streak to 65 games.

Melbourne (34-0) defeated Bigelow (25-5) 63-30 in a game in which it never trailed and was tied once, 4-4, in the first quarter in front of a crowd of 2,447 at Bank OZK Arena.

The Lady Bearkatz shot shot 23-of-54 from the floor, including 13-of-32 on 3-pointers, scored 30 points off 21 Bigelow turnovers and held Bigelow to 12-of-33 shooting from the floor.

Bigelow established such dominance that Coach Eric Teague did not call timeout until there was 3:05 left in the game to substitute reserves.

“This has been an unbelievable season,” said Teague. “When we first started out, we didn’t know how it would turn out. Going undefeated wasn’t the plan, but these kids worked so hard and played well as a team.”

Leading the way Kenley McCarn, who was named state tournament MVP by scoring 31 points on 11-of-20 shooting, including 6-of-9 three-pointers while grabbing 4 rebounds and handing out 3 assists. Abbie Lawrence had nine points and Kaitlyn McCarn had eight points.

Emma Wilson, Myra Willingham and Jenna Starks led Bigelow with seven points.

“Being a Bearkat has meant a lot to me and early on, people thought we would lose a lot, but we fixed that pretty quick. It was fun watching everyone step up. I don’t like to lose,” said Kenley McCarn.

Melbourne played a near-perfect first half in leading Bigelow 32-15 at halftime. Melbourne shot 12-of-28 from the floor, including 6-of-16 on three pointers and scored 19 points off 13 Bigelow turnovers with McCarn leading the way with 17 points.  

After being tied 4-4 for nearly four minutes in the first quarter before Kenley McCarn hit a three-pointer to make it 7-4, a lead it would never relinquish.

After a free throw by Willingham made it 7-5, Jordan Youngblood and Kenley McCarn made consecutive three pointers to make it 13-7 at the end of the first quarter.

Bigelow closed it to 13-11 at the start of the second quarter on two baskets by Wilson, but Melbourne scored the next eight points thanks to baskets by Kaitlyn McCarn, a jumper by Lawrence and two free throws by Kenley McCarn to make it 22-11 before Starks scored on a feed from Emma Wilson to make it 22-13 to end that streak.

After the media timeout at 3:37, Kenley McCarn made a jumper and three pointer to make it 27-13. A drive by Willingham made it 29-15 before Katilyn McCarn’s three-pointer ended the half at 32-15.

“That was a tough half and the thing was we had to guard them in unconventional fashion and tried to make other people make shots and that’s what they did,” said Bigelow Coach Luke Cornette. “They knew we had a tough task ahead of us.

“The main thing is we couldn’t give up out there because if you do that, then you’re going to give up on other things in life.”

Kenley McCarn said, “That first quarter was a little rough, but we got settled in and we went out there and tried not to take any possession for granted and make our defense flow into our offense.”

Bigelow never mounted any serious threat in the second half as the deficit never got below 19 points.

Despite ending the season with a blowout, Cornette was proud of what his team accomplished. “I’m proud of this team. We ran into a great Melbourne team and fought hard, anytime you get to the final game, you have done something right.”