By Jim Fryar

jfryar@joplinglobe.com

These girls just wanted to have fun.

The South girls wound up having the most fun Saturday in the Lions Club District 26-E All-Star Twin Classic.

With Saysan Jones and Mandy Howerton making big plays in the closing seconds, the South edged the North 91-88 at Missouri Southern’s Leggett & Platt Athletic Center.

Jones, a forward from Joplin, hit two free throws with 26 seconds left to put the South ahead 90-88. Howerton had a steal with 11 seconds remaining, then hit a single free throw for the final margin.

Howerton also disrupted the North’s final offensive set, forcing a jump ball with 0:02 left.

“She’s feisty,” Jones said of Howerton, her future teammate at Labette (Kan.) Community College. “She gets out there and gets after it. She seems like she never gets tired.”

Howerton, from Marionville, said she made the conscious decision not to pull the ball out and run clock after her steal at 0:11.

“I thought about holding it there, but then I decided to push it,” she said. “I had confidence in myself.”

North coach Walter Resa said he made the same decision with a one-point lead and about two minutes remaining.

“They looked at me (on the bench) like, ‘Do you want to pull it out?’ ” Resa said. “I said, ‘No, we’re going to attack.’ ”

That set up a furious finish, with the lead changing hands five times in 90 seconds.

“That was a lot different than school ball,” Howerton said of the game’s dizzying pace. “There were a lot of girls out there having fun. It was a blast.

“It was a little nerve-racking, but we came through. We all just had the heart and guts to finish it out.”