Lakewood girls pull away in 4th quarter

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on February 19, 2016 1:48 PM

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rcoggins@newsargus.com

SALEMBURG -- Spring Creek's Destiney Sutton took her defender off the dribble, drove into the lane knocked a down short jumper.

Sutton's basket tied the game at 52-all.

Gators' head coach Charlie Cotten burned a timeout.

"I told them at the timeout, we really pretty much -- in my mind -- had them where wanted to have them," said Cotten with 6:21 showing on the clock. "We had talked about (at halftime) coming back out, driving the ball to the basket and getting into the bonus. We came out and did exactly that."

Then SC -- all of a sudden -- didn't get the calls they expected against the more-physical and bigger Lakewood players who pushed and shoved their way to loose-ball rebounds.

Frustration set in and the Gators' lost their mental focus.

They also allowed a back-breaking 16-3 run that allowed the Leopards to pull away for a 75-60 victory in semifinal-round play of the 2016 Carolina 1-A Conference tournament Thursday evening. The Leopards (18-6 overall) oppose regular-season champion Rosewood tonight.

Tip-off is 6:30 p.m. at LHS.

"Some of the no-calls and they may have been legit no-calls, that's fine," Cotten said. "I think that affected them to some degree. They got a little tired, but I think some of the non-calls in their mind that didn't get called, got to them mentally."

The third-seeded Gators (12-13) also missed offensive production from senior guard Amber Buchan in the second half. She played unselfished and worked to get the ball into her teammates' hands instead of taking open shots at the basket that would have extended the Leopards' defense.

Buchan finished with 21 points, but just five in the second half.

"We kept saying keep driving and driving, and I told her -- in fact all of the girls -- to continue to drive. Tonight we needed her (Buchan) to drive more and shoot more. That's what I wanted from her."

Neither team could build more than either a two- or three-possession lead in the opening half. Each team answered the other with short offensive outbursts.

The Gators trailed by two points on several occasions during the early stages of the final quarter. Tysha Teachey's steal and pass to Destiney Sutton for uncontested layup knotted the game at 50-all.

Lakewood's Kiarye Bailey answered with her lone basket of the night before Teachey knocked down the game-tying shot on Sutton's assist. Teachey ended the night with 14 points and 17 rebounds -- her 11th double-double of the season.

The Leopards' backcourt of Justina Henry and Briana Evans -- who combined for 49 points -- constantly drove to the basket and drew the foul in the fourth quarter. The duo combined to shoot 15 of 19 from the stripe.

SC continued to see the deficit swell and had little energy to stage a comeback.

"We just didn't get it done," Cotten said.