No. 1 George Rogers Clark wears down upset-minded North Laurel in 4th quarter
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- Clark forced 12 fourth-quarter turnovers, yielding 14 of its 18 fourth-quarter points.
- Teigh Yeast had five steals and scored all 14 of her points in the second half.
- Mariella Claybrook finished with 28 points and 16 rebounds for North Laurel.
George Rogers Clark coach Robbie Graham had seen his No. 1 Cardinals play North Laurel’s game in the first half of the Clark’s Pump-N-Shop Girls’ Basketball Sweet 16’s final first round tilt on Thursday at Rupp Arena.
The No. 7 Jaguars led 25-22 at the break and exploited Clark with 10 points inside from 6-foot-2 junior center Mariella Claybrook and 10 points outside by eighth grader Laylee Phillips, who knocked down a pair of 3-pointers in the second quarter.
For more than three quarters, North Laurel looked to be a real threat to pull off an upset.
But after managing a 37-37 tie with 6:26 left in the game, the Jaguars withered under Clark’s final assault, which didn’t let North Laurel cross halfcourt for nearly two minutes as it pulled away to a 55-46 victory.
“We didn’t feel like we were pressuring the ball enough. We were kind of just letting them dictate tempo, and they were able to look and see and call plays,” Graham said. “We wanted to speed them up and make them play at a faster pace.”
Teigh Yeast, Clark’s senior co-10th Region player of the year and Miss Basketball finalist, grabbed five steals and all 14 of her points in the second half.
“I challenged her at halftime,” Graham said. “I said, ‘We’ve got to have you. You’re giving us donut (nothing) right now. We can’t beat anybody when you’re a donut.”
Yeast got the message.
“Coming out in the second half, I definitely know I was going to have to step up if we wanted to win this game,” said Yeast, who also hit Clark’s only 3-pointer of the game. “Be aggressive and do something defensively and offensively. If I wanted to get the win, I know I was going to have to come out and do something big.”
Clark’s decisive 8-0 fourth quarter run began by keeping North Laurel stuck in its defensive end and forcing a 10-second violation. The Cards followed by forcing Jags’ turnovers on four consecutive possessions that included two steals by Yeast and another by Stamper.
In all, Clark forced 12 North Laurel turnovers in the fourth, leading to 14 of their 18 points in the frame.
“Coach definitely got into us,” Clark junior guard Kennedy Stamper said. “We weren’t out there playing our best game. We knew that. So it’s really just up to us to come out and do our thing and play our game. And that’s what we did.”
Stamper and Kyleigh Chestnut each scored 11 points. Stamper led the team with six steals. Eighth grader Eliyah Strode snatched five steals and scored nine points.
“We had way too many turnovers to probably be successful,” North Laurel coach Eddie Mahan said. “I thought our defense was good enough to win. Mariella did a good job on the inside. I thought they struggled guarding her there. We had the advantage at least in a few areas, and we were trying to take advantage of that, but it wasn’t enough tonight against them in the second half.”
Claybrook, no doubt, will be one of the favorites for next season’s Miss Basketball. She finished with a game-high 28 points and 16 rebounds. Phillips’ 10 first half points for North Laurel (25-6) made her the only other Jaguar in double figures.
“We hadn’t seen a lot of strong post players this year. We definitely saw one tonight,” Graham said. “I mean, Claybrook is a load in there.”
Next, Clark (29-2) will face 4th Region champion Franklin-Simpson in the quarterfinals, another 8:30 p.m. tipoff on Friday.
This story was originally published March 13, 2026 at 1:44 AM.
