Gowen’s big night not enough as Poplar Bluff girls fall to North County 43-37 in C5D1 quarterfinals

Poplar Bluff senior Ireland Gowen put the lid on her high school basketball career with a strong performance in the district playoffs.

The star three-sport athlete scored a team-high 12 points and grabbed seven rebounds, as the No. 5 Lady Mules dropped a 43-37 contest to No. 4 North County in the Class 5 District 1 quarterfinals Thursday, March 6, at Cape Central High School.

Gowen led the charge, scoring all of her points in the paint on either a drive or smooth jumper as she closed her four-year career in front of her loyal fans in the postseason.

“Ireland’s a good kid,” an emotional Poplar Bluff coach Soley Dugas said. “She’s a leader for us. She’s been a big piece to this program and a big piece to my career and just helping me set the foundation. She plays three sports and is good at all of them. She’s humble and a leader. We’re going to miss her, but I’m confident that she has left her mark and left an impact on the young girls below her. They’re going to continue to pick up where she left off and keep moving forward.”

Junior Jadyn Brandon added seven points for Poplar Bluff (15-12), which turned in its first winning season since 2019-20 when the Lady Mules won a district title. Addison Valenzuela chipped in with six points behind a pair of 3s.

Raegan Pierce led North County (15-12) with 12 points, while sophomore Jovie Peterson added eight. The Lady Raiders, who defeated Poplar Bluff 51-32 in mid-January, will face reigning district champ and No. 1 seed Hillsboro (24-2) in the district semifinals at 3 p.m. Saturday, March 8.

After only posting four points by the end of the first quarter, Valenzuela knocked down a 3-pointer to cap a game-changing 12-2 run to pull the Lady Mules to within two.

Poplar Bluff was more than in the game at halftime, thanks to its late surge. Despite being behind as much as 18-4 at one point, the Lady Mules only trailed 26-25 at the break.

The Lady Raiders gained some separation and wore down Poplar Bluff late in the second half with a 14-5 run.

However, backed by Gowen, Poplar Bluff twice got within seven points of North County late in the fourth. Gowen’s jumper cut it to five with 32 seconds left, but Poplar Bluff could not get closer.

“It's been a grind,” Dugas said. “We lost six seniors last year and we have two this year, so we've got a lot of younger kids stepping up and helping out. I think we didn't go down easy. I thought that was big on us and just kind of shows that we'll battle. I didn't like being down that much with a lot of game left to play, but it just shows that we weren't going to give up. I'm just proud of the girls. We've had a great season. We've accomplished a lot of things as a program, and with this being my second season, it looks like we're going in the right direction.”

Despite the first-round exit, Poplar Bluff had an eight-win turnaround from last season under its second-year head coach. After going 7-19 in 2024 and sitting at the bottom of the district, the Lady Mules showed rapid improvement and are only losing a pair of seniors (Gowen and Julissa Johnson) to graduation.

“They're good girls,” Dugas said. “They want to play hard, they want to be successful. We've got a couple of things we're ironing out. We're just finding our cohesion, learning each other's strengths and figuring out how we can spread the love a little bit with scoring and stuff. But improving our record by eight wins in a year just goes to show the hard work we put in, in the offseason. I mean, we were flipping tires in August, running mile Mondays and just grinding it out in November.”