Saints fend off Bears in ECC 3A/4A girls' basketball

By Allen Etzler
Published in Sports on January 10, 2015 11:52 PM

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aetzler@newsargus.com

DUDLEY -- Down a point with under five minutes remaining, Southern Wayne's Cierra Thompson caught a pass near midcourt and had a wide-open path to the basket.

She blew the layup.

"Man I couldn't believe that," Thompson said.

The missed opportunity left Thompson visibly upset, as she threw up her hands in frustration and lowered her head. She kept replaying the miss over and over in her mind.

Then three minutes later it was deja vu as she had another clear lane to the basket. This time she finished the layup and helped seal a 59-55 win over New Bern in their Eastern Carolina 3-A/4-A Conference game Friday evening.

"I was so mad when I missed that shot, I knew when I had that chance I had to make it that time," Thompson said.

The Bears dominated the third quarter and took a one-point lead into the fourth quarter that was back-and-forth for all eight minutes. Thompson's layup gave the Saints their biggest lead of the quarter before the Bears continued fighting as they had done all night.

New Bern, led by Teana Lewis' 26 points and 19 rebounds, cut the lead to one with 3:18 left. Lewis was called for a technical foul after committing a personal foul.

Zaria Atkins drained all four free throws before Thompson made her fateful layup.

The Saints, from there, knocked down their free throws, including two Atkins free throws with six seconds left to give Southern Wayne (6-8 overall, 1-2 ECC) a two-possession advantage. Atkins finished the game with 35 points after scoring 37 against the Bears in their last meeting a little more than a week ago.

"There's no secret to my game," Atkins said. "They just got to step up and stop me and they weren't able to."

Atkins shot 14 of 17 from the charity stripe. But her final two free throws were the most important. And no one had any doubts.

"I was very confident with her at the line," Saints' assistant coach Takisha Vann said. "We all trust her to step up when the game is on the line."

Thompson echoed her coach.

"I knew she had it," said Thompson, who had a double-double -- 11 points, 14 rebounds.

"I wasn't worried. She's good."

Anastashia McNair and Iyahna Bess each provided solid post play for the undersized Saints and combined for 13 points.