WALLBURG — At times in Wednesday night’s semifinal of the NewBridge Christmas Classic at Ledford High School, East Davidson must have felt like Central Davidson couldn’t miss. Every time it looked as if the Lady Golden Eagles were going to pull away from the Spartans, another 3-pointer would make the game tantalizingly interesting.

In a game full of long shots from the outside, East Davidson held on at the free throw line and advanced to today’s final with a well-earned 73-69 victory. The Lady Eagles will play North Davidson in tonight’s final.

“They played well,” Eagles coach Brian Eddinger said. “We didn’t play as well as we could’ve the entire game but we hung in there and made enough plays in the end to win the game. Every win is a good win.”

A game earlier, East Davidson’s boys rolled, rallied then rolled again in a thrilling 70-69 overtime triumph against North Davidson. After falling behind 21-10 in the first quarter, the Golden Eagles used a blistering second to snatch a 37-32 halftime lead. EDHS seemingly had the game in hand until the Vikings ended the game scoring 25 of the final 34 points to force overtime. Neither team pulled away in the extra session as the lead changed hands several times. With 2.4 seconds to go, Zach Palmer made of two free throws to seal the deal.

“I can’t me proud of the guys,” said East coach Matt Jacobs. “We overcame some things down the stretch, including myself, to get a win. We fought hard and the guys deserve it.”

The Lady Eagles came out of the gates looking to run against a bigger Central squad. EDHS got out in transition and scored a few easy baskets to build an early 7-point lead. The Lady Spartans had some offensive firepower, as well, and never let the Lady Eagles out of their sights. Three-pointers from Paige Chavis, Maggie Oxendine and Lydian Beck kept CDHS within striking distance heading into the second half as East led by just seven, 36-29.

Taylor Hallman’s basket midway through the third quarter pushed the Eagles lead to double-digits and EDHS seemed ready to cruise. Over the next two minutes, however, the Spartans outscored the Eagles 11-2, knotting the game at 44-all. In the final quarter, Haley Grimsley showed why she is one of the premier shooters in the county as the senior drained two big 3s in the final 5:12 of the game that proved to be the difference. The Lady Eagles made four of their final six foul shots to hold off the scrappy Spartans.

East had four players score in double figures, led by Grimsley’s game-high 20 points. Stacy Hicks poured in 18, Hallman added 16 and Candance Fox chipped in 12. Charles and Beck combined to score 37 points for Central and McKenzie Burkhart tallied 15. In the boys game, Taylor Warren paced East with 22 points and Dodd scored 18.



Staff Writer Eliot Duke can be reached at 888-3578, or duke@tvilletimes.com.