By Shannon Fagan, WEIS Sports Director
CENTRE – For most of their Class 4A, Area 10 basketball game against Class 4A, Area 10 rival Jacksonville on Thursday, the Cherokee County Lady Warriors were cruising along.
But then the Lady Warriors began missing layups, and the Lady Golden Eagles began to find their mark from 3-point range.
Jacksonville sank five of their 10 3-pointers in the fourth quarter to erase what was once a 16-point Lady Warrior lead to tie the game with 2:35 remaining.
Cherokee County responded down the stretch on a steal and a basket by Mary Hayes Johnson, then Audrey Haygood and Nevaeh Gaidurgis connected on 3-of-4 free throws in the final 23 seconds as the Lady Warriors held on for a 49-44 victory to improve to 18-3 on the season.
“We were proud of them for battling,” Lady Warrior coach Richard Barton said. “We kind of knew what they like to do. We’ve seen a lot of games like that, with them being down early, battling back and applying pressure. We just didn’t handle it well for a little while, but I was proud of the fight. We got a little winded and wore ourselves out offensively, but they battled and a win’s a win. We’re 3-0 in the area now, and that’s big.”
Johnson led the Lady Warriors with 17 points, including three 3-pointers of her own. She also had 10 steals, four assists and four rebounds. Gaidurgis posted 14 points, 10 rebounds, two steals and an assist. She connected on a key 3-pointer to break a 41-41 tie with 3:46 to go, but Jacksonville countered with a trey from Alexis Phillips to tie the game again at 44 before the Lady Warriors went on a 5-0 run to close out the game and escape with the win.
Barton knows the Lady warriors were “very fortunate” to come away with the victory after the Lady Warriors missed 12 layups.
“At first it felt like we were going to pull away, and then we talked a lot about how those easy misses can break you,” Barton said. “If you’re not knocking them down and putting them away, you let them hang around and give them some momentum, then it’s real easy to make it a game. We were very fortunate.
“They ended up hitting 10 3s on us, with most of them in the second half. It seemed like everything that went up was going in. You’ve got to be able to respond when something like that happens.”
And respond the Lady Warriors did.
Haygood had seven points, three steals, two rebounds and an assist for Cherokee County. Ellisan Givens finished with five points and four steals.
Nevaeh Nicholson topped the Lady Golden Eagle scorers with 15 points, including three treys. Phillips came away with 13 points for Jacksonville, including four 3-pointers. Halaina Lozano netted nine points on three 3-pointers. Deasia Prothro finished with five points.
Boys
Jacksonville 59, Cherokee County 44
CENTRE – Devin Barksdale sank five 3-pointers and finished with a game-high 21 points to lead the Jacksonville Golden Eagles to a 59-44 Class 4A, Area 10 basketball win at Cherokee County on Thursday.
The Golden Eagles jumped out to a 19-7 first quarter advantage and maintained a 32-20 lead at halftime. Jacksonville held a 43-32 lead at the end of the third quarter.
Preventing the Warriors from getting any closer was their free-throw shooting. They were 9-for-24 from the charity stripe (37.5 percent).
Jacob Cornejo led the Warriors with 10 points. Jayquan Diamond and Ben Moseley scored eight points apiece. Keyshwan Woods finished with five points.
Jaquan Ervin netted 11 points for Jacksonville. Aaron Nixon added 10 points. Monte Sinclair managed six points, and Sean Herbert finished with five points.
