Eastern Wayne girls outlast Northwood, headed to east 3A regional

By Allen Etzler
Published in Sports on March 4, 2015 1:49 PM

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aetzler@newsargus.com

Naheria Hamilton emerged from post-game handshakes with tears welling up in her eyes.

Whether it was from the happiness or the pain was unclear. All the tears and emotions had melded together.

Just minutes before, Hamilton walked back onto the court to start the fourth quarter after a debilitating cramp kept her on the bench toward the end of the third quarter.

She proceeded to score eight points in the fourth quarter, including the game-winning basket, in Eastern Wayne's 60-56 victory over Northwood that sent the Warriors to the N.C. High School Athletic Association Class 3-A eastern regionals in Fayetteville.

Eastern Wayne (26-0 overall) plays Chapel Hill at either 7 or 8:30 p.m. Friday at the Crown Coliseum in Fayetteville.

"When Na realizes it's a big game and that the other team comes to play, she is going to come to play," Eastern Wayne coach Phil Gray said. "And when she comes to play like she did tonight, it's tough to stop her."

With the Warriors clinging to a three-point lead with 38 seconds left, Northwood's Shontai Totten stole a pass, dribbled down the court and hit a 3-pointer to tie the game with 15.9 seconds left.

Gray had every intention of letting his Warriors try to win the game on their own, but Northwood called a timeout.

Instead of drawing up a play for his team, Gray reminded his girls of the pain they felt after letting their game against Cardinal Gibbons last season slip away in the final minute, which prevented them from going to regionals.

"I told them if they don't want to go through that again then go out there and finish them off," Gray said. "Every timeout from two minutes on to the end that's what I was telling them."

And out of the timeout, Jasmine Covington knew exactly what she was going to do.

"I just knew I was going to attack the basket," Covington said. "I knew if I missed a jump shot it could bounce off real far and they could possibly get it and go. But if I missed a layup it wouldn't bounce off too far, and I knew if I missed I had number 30 (Hamilton) to grab it for us."

Her intuition was right.

Hamilton was there to grab the rebound and put it back in with just over four seconds remaining.

"At first I thought it was going in," Hamilton said. "But then I saw it hit off the rim and I knew I had to go get it so I put everything I had to get the ball and I did. Then I just put it back up."

Hamilton finished with a triple-double with -- 19 points, 14 rebounds and 10 blocks. Covington chipped in 17 points and seven rebounds. Megan Mozingo added 10 points.

The game wasn't without a bit of controversy, though.

An inadvertent whistle as Northwood tried to run its final inbounds play tipped off the Chargers' strategy. After play was restarted, the Warriors stole the inbounds pass.

Earlier in the game, however, a whistle blew for an injury timeout just as a Northwood player released a 3-pointer and made it. They counted the basket, to the dismay a lot of the fans.

"We knew it wasn't over," Hamilton said. "But we also knew we were just going to have to play. It didn't matter who it was against, how many people were against us we had to play and take it."

The turning point of the game was at the end of the second quarter, when the Warriors went on an 11-0 run to tie the game on a buzzer beater from Covington at the half.

"That run was big," Gray said. "It gave us the momentum and showed these girls again that no lead is too big for them."

Up until that point, Kristian Eanes was nearly unstoppable, consistently finishing at the rim. She had 12 first-half points, but was held to just one in the second half.

"We had never played against a player like that," Hamilton said. "So once we saw her and started communicating and switching on defense we were able to slow her down. But she was good."