East Davidson's Stacy Hicks tries to drive the baseline around North's Maudie Amos in the NewBridge Bank finals.
Times Photo/Larry Mathis
Winning its first tournament title under head coach Kim Payne, North Davidson avoided a monstrous mistake in the final seconds, securing a 60-59 win over the Golden Eagles.
With 6.5 seconds remaining, North’s Maudie Amos knocked down a pair at the charity stripe that put North up 60-57. Instead of opting for a 3, East (10-2) raced up the floor and went for a quick two, and they almost got more than they bargained for.
Chelsea Turner took the feed from Taylor Hallman and went up for the layup. For whatever reason, North’s Chaunelle Yokely reached in to foul her. The shot was good, and Turner went to the line with the opportunity of sending the game to overtime in her hands with 1.2 seconds left. With the Black Knight faithful making noise any way they possibly could, Turner sent up the free throw which clanked off the iron, and East could not get another shot off in a scrum under the basket.
“It is tough. “You can say, ‘Well, if Chelsea hits the free throw ...’ but really we should not have been in that position,” said East coach Brian Eddinger. “We missed a lot of layups early on and a lot of our free throws. We put ourselves in that position and tonight we just didn’t quite find a way to pull it out.”
To start the game, East built a 13-7 advantage in the first quarter and continued to lead by six midway through the second. North struggled to make shots and had to deal with foul trouble with Amos and Alex Payne going to the bench with two each. Sensing the game was starting to slip away a bit, both were inserted back in the lineup and North mounted a charge.
Katie Allen went coast to coast for a layup and Yokely hit two shots in the lane to tie the score at 19 apiece. A 3-pointer by East’s Haley Grimsley broke the tie, but North’s 7-0 run to the half put them up 26-22.
North played better defense during the stretch, bothering many of the Golden Eagle shots. East’s shot selection fell off as a result, as they forced the ball up and were out of sync.
“I think because things have been going so well for us we thought we could hit them,” said Eddinger. “It is good that we have found some confidence, but when it didn’t fall we got away from our game a little bit and forced a few shots.”
North (9-3) scored the first two points of the second half, but the resilient Eagles never gave up. A Stacy Hicks free throw eventually tied the game, as the lead went back and forth into the early stages of the fourth quarter.
The Black Knights hit the Golden Eagles with a 9-0 spurt in the final period, seemingly wrapping up the title with East beginning to show signs of frustration. Eddinger called a timeout to calm the nerves, and it was obvious in the huddle that the players knew this one was well within reach with five minutes to go.
East tip-toed back in it cutting the deficit to three with Grimsley’s layup off the inbounds pass. Neither team scored for nearly two minutes after that, until Samantha Honeycutt hit perhaps the biggest shot of the game. Her 3-pointer from the top put North up by six and had them in good position.
A quick five points by Hallman whittled the lead down to one, but again, North found some points. Hallman set up the last sequence with a take to the basket with 7.4 seconds remaining that made it 58-57.
“Our intensity seemed to fall off after the second and third period and didn’t pick up again until about five minutes to go,” Eddinger said. Our girls have played hard each night and maybe had a little fatigue set in, but they were going really hard.”
Notes: Grimsley netted 14 points with Hicks and Turner adding 12, apiece for East ... Yokley led North with 14 ... Grimsley and Hicks made the all-tournament team for East while North’s Payne and was also selected ... Ledford’s Taylor Ballard was also named ... Most Valuable Player honors, given in memory of the late Don Palmer, went to North’s Katie Allen
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