By T. Scott Boatright
Boys: Ringgold 63, Lincoln Prep 59 (2OT)
GRAMBLING — Forget about regulation play, it was all about overtime as the Lincoln Prep Panthers played host to Ringgold Friday night in a District 1-1A showdown inside the LPS gym.
And an extra four minutes wasn’t enough, it took two extra periods to decide this contest.
But three straight turnovers to start the second OT period was too much for Lincoln Prep to overcome as the Panthers fell 63-59, dropping to 17-7 overall and 2-1 in district play.
“That was tough,” Hudson said. “We let one get away. But (our) hat’s off to them. They came here and played hard and did everything they needed to do to pick up a win on the road.”
The game was tied at 48-48 at the end of regulation after the Panthers roared out to a 12-4 advantage in the first 4:36 of the contest and led 19-9 by the end of the opening stanza.
They pushed that lead to 21-9 at the 5:59 mark of the second stanza on an Amarje Young layup before Ringgold went on an 11-2 run the rest of the second quarter to cut Lincoln Prep’s lead to three points at 23-20 at halftime.
Ringgold led 34-33 heading into the final eight minutes of regulation play and outscored the Panthers 15-14 in the fourth quarter to push the game to overtime.
Lincoln Prep trailed 54-51 with 21.5 seconds left in the first OT period but a long 3-pointer that left Trey Spann’s hands with less than a second left hit nothing but net as the game headed to a second overtime tied at 56-56.
Ringgold scored four points after Lincoln Prep turned the ball over three straight times to go up 60-56 with 2:40 left in that stanza.
“Trey made a big shot to push the game to another overtime, but then we turned the ball over three straight times,” Hudson said. “It was one of those self-inflicted deals that have cost us every game we’ve lost this season. I’ve said before, if we could put a whole game together we’d be pretty good.
“But we didn’t do that tonight. And it cost us.”
Lincoln Prep cut the Redskins’ lead to 62-59 on a Young free throw with 1:36 remaining, but Ringgold stretched its led to four points on a free throw with 19.3 seconds on the clock and made sure not to foul on another last second 3-point try by Spann that failed to hit anything to escape with the win.
Young led the Panthers with 17 points while adding seven steals, three assists and two rebounds while Spann totaled 14 points, five boards, five steals and an assist.
Devin Burton double-doubled for the Panthers, totaling 10 points and 13 rebounds along with four assists, two steals and a blocked shot while Jabari Levington added nine points, five boards, four assists, three steals and two blocked shots.
The Panthers also got five points, six rebounds, five steals and three assists from Frediron Payne and four points, nine boards and an assist from Zion Hicks.
A big part of the Panthers’ loss was that they made only one-of-20 from 3-point range.
“The thing is, we take a lot of stuff for granted,” Hudson said. “And that’s not on them, it’s on me and our coaching staff. Mostly on me. I’ve got to figure out a way to motivate this team so we can continue to get better. But at the same time, they have to receive and accept that challenge.
“We’ve got to get in the gym and get more shots up so there’s no excuse not to shoot the ball better than we are. We just need to go in (to practice) and work.”
Next up for the Panthers will be a District 2-1A game against Homer on Monday.
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Ringgold 53, Lady Panthers 19
Sometimes the odds are stacked against an athletic team, no matter what kind of effort is put in.
Lincoln Preparatory School’s girls basketball team is learning that the hard way this season, going through another lesson Friday night as the Lady Panthers fell 43-19 to District 1-1A foe Ringgold inside the LPS Gym.
The loss dropped the Lady Panthers to 2-13 overall and 1-2 in district play while Ringgold moved to 4-14 and 1-2.
Lady Panthers volleyball coach Demitria Johnson took over the helm of the girls basketball team unexpectedly at the start of the season and knew going in she would be facing an uphill battle this season.
“Our girls are not the girls basketball team that plays year-round and concentrates on being part of a basketball team all day long,” Johnson said. “Our kids are academic kids that chose to play basketball and need a little more work to start being consistent in their play.
“So, our basketball IQ needs to grow, our conditioning needs to get better and that will come as they learn it takes commitment to play the game the way they need to. I inherited this team that had no kind of preseason conditioning or anything like that. We have a lot of kids who are busy doing a lot of things (including playing volleyball for Johnson) and are coming in and out of practice.”
Johnson said the future is bright for Lincoln Prep girls hoops, but that for now, patience will be a virtue.
“I know the future is going to be better because we’re raising a lot of young students who are going to help us get better,” Johnson said. “We’re training a lot of our elementary school students and they will be our future.
“And these girls out on the court for us now will get better. We just have to be patient at this point. Once I get a group that can consistently come to practice, I think we’ll see a lot more growth. Right now I’m just trying to get them to consistently show up at practice, because we know games are actually won or lost in practice.”
The Lady Panthers’ inconsistency showed in Friday’s game against Ringgold.
They actually led 6-5 at the end of the first quarter thanks to three baskets from the floor by Synniah Spann.
And they moved out to a 9-5 lead at the 6:30 mark of the second stanza on a Kayla Ferguson free throw and a layup by A’jah Saulsberry.
But the Lady Redskins then went on an 11-1 run — that single point coming on a Spann free throw — to take a 16-10 lead into the locker room at halftime.
Ringgold put the game away in the third quarter by scoring 16 straight points while holding Lincoln Prep scoreless to put the Lady Panthers down 32-10 heading into the final eight minutes of play.
Za’kyah Wimberly added a 3-pointer and Ferguson scored on a layup for the Lady Panthers in the fourth quarter, but the game was already out of reach heading into that final stanza.
Spann led the Lady Panthers with seven points while Lyric Reed was Ringgold’s top scorer with 20.
Next up for Lincoln Prep will be a game at Homer on Monday.
