
By Shannon Fagan, WEIS Sports Director
SAND ROCK – All basketball season long, the Sand Rock Lady Wildcats have been proving their doubters wrong.
They’ve heard they’re too young and they lack experience, but somehow they found their way into Tuesday’s Class 2A, Area 13 championship game against Cedar Bluff.
Even heading into Tuesday’s area championship game, junior forward Macey Pruitt said the Lady Wildcats were still hearing that kind of talk. But by night’s end, the Lady Wildcats were the ones cutting the nets down on their third straight area title.
After shaking off some early nerves, the Lady Wildcats managed to hold off Cedar Bluff 49-40. Pruitt, the tournament’s Most Valuable Player, led third-ranked Sand Rock (24-6) with 18 points, three rebounds and two assists.
“All day everybody was telling us ‘You can’t beat a team three times. They’re going to switch stuff up. They’re going to change stuff up’, but I think tonight proved we can do a lot more than people expect,” Pruitt said. “We’ve come along so much since the beginning of summer. We thought it was going to be bad after we got our butts kicked, but I think that helped us realize the work that we needed to do.
“(Coach) Mrs. (Lisa) Bates pushes us extra hard and tells us if we really want it we can do it. We just have to believe in ourselves.”
And believe Sand Rock did, once their nerves subsided.
“They came out a little bit uptight. My coaches looked at me on the bench and they’re like ‘You realize they haven’t been in an area championship game. They’ve not been in this situation. They’re going to be a little uptight,’ Bates said. “I know they’re young, but I don’t treat them like they are. We got in some early foul trouble that just took us out of what we wanted to do, but I thought Macey stepped it up and had a really good game. She scored when we needed her to score to stretch it out a little bit.”
After losing by 30 and 20 points to the Lady Wildcats in their previous two meetings this season, the Lady Tigers (17-10) proved to be more competitive on Tuesday. They trailed 15-10 at the end of the first quarter and 22-18 at halftime.
But Sand Rock began to pull away from the beginning to the midway point of the third by going on a 15-3 run that pushed the lead to 37-21.
The Lady Tigers managed to cut the deficit back down to seven on a rebound and putback by Paityn Walker with 35 seconds remaining in the game, but could get no closer.
“I feel like this was the best we played them this year,” Cedar Bluff coach Deidra Cox said. “I feel like our girls were better prepared for this game. They had the right attitude and mindset the past couple of days at practice. I think since the last Sand Rock game, they kind of put this on the calendar and wanted to make it a point to be back in the area championship, playing Sand Rock again to try to see what we could give them.
“I’m proud of the girls. I thought they played hard. I felt like they executed what we were trying to do. We just come up a little short at the end.”
Kylie Vadon led the Lady Tigers with 20 points, 10 rebounds and four steals. Caley Bruce contributed six points, 12 boards and a steal. Kija Gleen finished with five points.
Vadon and Bruce were chosen to the all-tournament team.
Molly Grace Lay added 12 points for Sand Rock. Maddie Clanton contributed 10 points and nine rebounds. Peyton Johnson finished with six points.
Lay, Clanton and Johnson joined Pruitt from Sand Rock on the all-tournament team.
Both teams advance to sub-regional play on Friday at 6 p.m. Sand Rock will host Area 16 runner-up North Sand Mountain while Cedar Bluff will travel to Area 16 champion Pisgah.
Pisgah defeated North Sand Mountain 70-29 in the Area 16 title game.
“Our cross region is ridiculously tough. You don’t want to go play at either one of those places,” Bates said. “We’ve done it. We know. We don’t want to do that again. That was one of our biggest things. We wanted to host this game. That’s what gives us a chance. I feel like our girls will play hard. Who knows what will happen? I know it’s a tough team, but we’re going to play the best we can and play to win. I’d love to take this group of girls to Jacksonville.”
