FARMINGTON -- Farmington's defense once more rose to the occasion generating a 9-0 run over the last 2:56 of the first quarter as the Lady Cardinals defeated Clinton, 71-32, on Thursday.
The Lady Cardinals (35-1) uncharacteristically had trouble finishing around the basket and were off on their free throws early while playing on their home court during state girls basketball action, but caused a host of problems on the defensive end while advancing into the state semifinals for the fifth straight year and 10th time in 13 seasons under coach Brad Johnson.
"I think obviously would have liked to finish better early around the rim. We were super aggressive I thought as far as advancing the basketball up the floor. Defensively we didn't play bad. We were pretty stingy for the most part," said Farmington Coach Brad Johnson. "But again there are certain things that we key in on and lock in on and we want to be better in the glass than we were tonight. We've got to finish better than we did tonight. But overall from an effort standpoint, I thought we played real hard, put the ball in the right spots."
Senior point-guard Reese Shirey injected herself into the offense at opportune times, dashing the hopes of the Lady Yellowjackets. Shirey scored six points in the last 2:12 of the first quarter. Shirey's classmate, Hannah Moss, converted a layup in traffic after taking a steal to the basket. Shirey's pullup with time running out capped the 9-0 run and give the Lady Cardinals an 18-7 cushion at the end of the first quarter.
Moss and Aliviah Johnson traded 3-pointers to start the second quarter. Shirey then orchestrated a 14-7 Farmington surge. She stole the ball and drove, drawing a foul and making both charity shots, then found Zoey Bershers on the low block for an easy bucket, twice set up Morgan Uher off the bench for trifectas, and buried a deep three from the wing.
Lexi Wallace, who led Clinton with 12 points, hit a runner at the buzzer to make it 35-17 at intermission, but all that did was light Shirey's fire.
Farmington engineered a 21-4 outburst over the first 6:17 of the second half, highlighted by Shirey scoring seven straight points. She knocked down a trey on the left wing on Kaycee McCumber's assist with the Lady Cardinals smartly executing a press breaker, then took two steals in for layups.
Bershers was on from long-range and connected on her third and fourth 3-pointers of the contest, sandwiched around her blocked shot that led to a Clinton turnover during the run. Bershers hit a pair of 3-pointers in the game's first 1:35 to provide early offense and chalked up 17 points.
The Lady Yellowjackets endured a 4:30 scoring drought while Farmington extended its lead to 56-21 on a Shirey triple at the 1:43 mark of the third quarter and the game was well in hand as the Lady Cardinals stretched their winning streak to 29.
Farmington led 62-22 going into the fourth quarter and earned the right to host Nashville in Saturday's early semifinals in a rematch of the last two state finals with Nashville winning, 42-41, in 2022 and Farmington winning 65-61 in 2023.
Farmington 71, Clinton 32
Clinton^7^10^5^10 --^32
Farmington^18^17^27^9^--^71
Farmington (35-1, 14-0): Reese Shirey 7 5-6 22, Zoey Bershers 6 1-2 17, Morgan Uher 3 0-0 9, Hannah Moss 3 0-0 8, J'Myra London 1 2-4 4, Madi Young 1 0-0 3, Kaycee McCumber 0 2-2 2, Marin Adams 1 0-0 2, Gabby McBurnett 1 0-1 2, Josie Dillard 1 0-0 2. Totals 24 10-15 71.
Clinton (23-12): Lexi Wallace 4 3-4 12, Cadence Gifford 2 3-3 7, Maggie Gresham 2 1-2 5, Gracee Linville 1 0-0 3, Aliviah Johnson 1 0-0 3, Kenna Collins 1 0-0 2. Totals 11 7-9 32.
3-Point Goals -- Farmington 13 (Bershers 4, Shirey 3, Uher 3, Moss 2, Young). Clinton 3 (Wallace, Linville, Johnson).