It will be an all Abilene Ottawa final Saturday night in the Abilene Sub-State.  The Cowgirls punched their ticket to the final tonight with an impressive 71-41 victory over El Dorado. The top seeded Cowgirls used a 16-2 run over the final 3:27 of the first half to turn an eight point lead into a 22 point advantage going into the half, with the score 46-24. 

     “I didn’t realize it ( the run) was that.  I thought we got some stuff off our press.  We hit some three’s.  Just dominated the game for that four minute stretch.  I don’t know if we wore them down a little bit.  Whatever happened it just ended the game right there,” said Abilene Head Coach Steve Riedy. 

     Abilene scored a season high for points in a quarter with 28 in the second.  The Cowgirls also scored a season high in points on the night.  Abilene Senior McKenzie Funston scored 9 of her game high 18 points in the second quarter and Senior Jessica Hayes poured in 10 of her 17 in that same quarter. 

     The Cowgirls jumped on El Dorado early 11-0 capitalizing on Lady Wildcat turnovers.  El Dorado had 12 first quarter turnovers and finished with 27 in the game.  The Lady Wildcats would battle back with a 9-0 run that bridged the first and second quarters to pull within 18-15 with 7:30 to play before halftime.  Abilene would respond though with a 28-9 run to finish the half to take control of the game.

     “I give them (El Dorado) credit they kept plugging away.  It’s a game of runs.  You can’t let a team like that go on a run like that without a run of your own,” said El Dorado Head Coach Jordan Crawford. 

     Abilene would lead by as much as 35 points in the final quarter, and there was a running clock for the final 5:17 of the game.  With the win the Cowgirls won their 5th straight game to improve to 15-6 on the season.  With the loss, El Dorado dropped their 6th straight to finish the year at 2-19. 

     Saturday night the Cowgirls will play Ottawa 5-16 at 6 pm.  Last year Abilene defeated Ottawa 50-23 in the girl’s final of the Ottawa Sub-State.  The Cowboys 18-3 will play Ottawa 17-4 in the boys finals which will start 20 minutes after the conclusion of the girls game.  The Abilene boys defeated Ottawa last year 64-48 in the semifinals of the Ottawa Sub-State.