Lady Hounds late rally falls short

FORT MADISON - It took Landon Bentley a little while to say goodbye to his seniors, and Fort Madison’s girls basketball season.
The Bloodhounds’ 46-44 loss to Keokuk in Wednesday’s Class 4A Region 6 quarterfinal was an emotional ending for the Fort Madison coach, who took almost 25 minutes after the game to meet a final time with his players.
“I think we’re all frustrated because we really wanted to win,” Bentley said. “When you have a group like this, with senior dominance, we just talked about a lot of things. Get your mind away from basketball. This was bigger than basketball what they did for our program.”
Seniors Dayonna Davis, Halle Menke and Hadley Wolfe have been mainstays in the Bloodhounds’ lineup throughout their careers. They were 1-2-3 in scoring for Fort Madison this season.
“You know, they're just so special,” Bentley said. “It's why it took so long to get out of the locker room, because they deserved for me to talk to them. Hadley, Halle and Dayonna are going to be irreplaceable. They helped me develop a program. They've been in the gym countless hours lifting weights, doing the right things on the court and in the classroom. Maleena (Bentley) and Ellie Huebner have done good things for us and been good team players — they come to practice every night and do the right things and know their roles. We lose two senior managers who have been with us for a while.
“It’s hard saying goodbye to all of them. Real hard.”
The Bloodhounds (13-9) swept the Southeast Conference champion Chiefs (15-7) in the regular season, but Keokuk made enough plays in the closing seconds to advance to Saturday’s regional semifinal at No. 6 Central DeWitt (21-1).
Fort Madison trailed by 13 points in the third quarter before mounting a furious fourth-quarter rally helped by the fact that Keokuk’s two top scorers, also two of the team’s captains, had fouled out of the game.
The Bloodhounds were down 42-33 when Wolfe drew an offensive foul from Keokuk’s Kendra Boatman, her fifth of the game, with 4:43 to play. Boatman had scored 20 points, but getting her out of the game was the first step.

“Hadley made a great play on that drive,” Bentley said.
A jumper by Charley Huebner and a 3-pointer from Wolfe closed the gap to 42-38. A Wolfe drive to the basket cut the Keokuk lead to two, then Chiefs guard Elizabeth Mason, who had 11 points, was called for her fifth foul.
With two veteran players on the bench, the Bloodhounds ramped up their pressure defense on the Chiefs.
“When you have a player like Boatman, it's hard to put pressure, but when she comes out of the game, you can put a little bit more on there,” Bentley said. “With Mason out, now their two best ballhandlers are out.”
Fort Madison had two chances to tie the game before finally doing so on Menke’s putback with 51 seconds to play.
Keokuk’s Kali Ames was fouled on the Chiefs’ next possession and made one free throw to put her team back out in front. Her second free throw missed, but teammate Kylee Hoard got the rebound and quickly called a timeout after falling to the court.
Wolfe fouled Hoard with 16 seconds left, then Hoard made two free throws for a 45-42 lead. Menke scored inside with six seconds left to cut the lead to one, then Neveah Logan was quickly fouled. Logan made the second of two free throws, giving the Bloodhounds a chance to tie or win the game, but Reilynn Turnbull’s running 3-pointer at the buzzer missed.
“They had some girls step up, make some free throws, and we didn't make the shots at the end,” Bentley said.
Menke finished with 20 points. Wolfe had 13.
“Just a hard way to go out,” Bentley said. “But I’m proud of them for what they accomplished.”