by Malcolm Butler
Caroline James and Avery Ryan each scored 13 points and Cedar Creek’s defensive scheme stymied Quitman in the second half as the Lady Cougars pulled out a 46-42 victory before a standing room only crowd at The Brickhouse Friday night.
Creek (10-2) trailed by as many as 11 at 22-11 with following a three-pointer by Anna Leach with 7:05 to play in the second quarter — the fourth three-pointer of the opening nine minutes to play by the Wolverines — when Creek head coach Katie Hall decided to switch up defenses.
It worked.
With the Lady Cougars face-guarding Leach the rest of the night and using junior Taylor Martinez on Quitman star Cali Deal, Cedar Creek was able to hold the Wolverines to just 20 points over the final 23 minutes of the game.
“We worked on that this week, and we were prepared to mix up our defenses tonight,” said Hall. “We weren’t sure what was going to be successful tonight. It was a tall task of asking Taylor to guard Deal almost the entire game. And Caroline did a great job of taking (Leach) out in the second half because that is their engine that runs that ball club. Our defense won the game tonight, and I was very proud of that effort.”
James was also instrumental on the offensive end for the Lady Cougars. Trailing 22-11, James drained a three-pointer to make it 22-14 and later in the quarter hit another three-pointer to close the gap to 24-22 with just over a minute to play.
Creek trailed 27-26 at the break.
“We have been cursed in the second quarter this year,” said Hall. “We just haven’t been playing very well in the second quarter of ball games. I thought the change in defense and then Caroline hit a couple of threes that really sparked us and kept us going. I was very proud of her play tonight. She also hit some big free throws towards the end.”
The third quarter was a defensive slugfest as neither team could find its offensive rhythm with the Lady Cougars outscoring the Wolverines 6-1 in the quarter.
A Ryan layup one minute into the quarter gave the Lady Cougars a lead they would never relinquish. Avery hit a second layup three minutes later and Mary Grace Hawkins converted an AND1 to give Creek a 32-27 lead. A Deal free throw with 1:35 to play in the quarter was the lone point for Quitman.
The fourth quarter saw Creek score seven straight point as Ryan connected on a pair of buckets and Hawkins drained a three-pointer to give the Lady Cougars a 39-28 lead with 5:23 to play forcing a Quitman timeout.
However, the Wolverines wouldn’t go away as Deal scored seven straight points to close the deficit to 39-35. A pair of free throws by Alivia Lee made it 42-37 with 3:11 to play but Quitman would cut the Creek lead to 42-41 on a layup by Hallie Pullig with 90 seconds to play.
The lead remained one until James calmly stepped to the line and hit a pair of free throws with 21 seconds to play to make it 44-41.
After Deal split a pair of free throws with 14 seconds left, James hit two more free throws with 1.5 seconds to play to seal the victory for Creek.
“It’s nice to be able to have a balanced attack,” said Hall. “One night it’s one kid, and the next night it’s another kid. I love that we have different weapons on our team.”
Deal led Quitman with 18 points while Leach added 13 — all coming in the first half.
Creek will play Homer on December 26 at 4:30 p.m. in the Doc Edwards Invitational.
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Quitman Scoring: FG(3)-FT=TP
Jaleigh Burns 1(1)-0=3; Cali Deal 6(1)-5=18; Taylor Borland 0-2=2; Anna Leach 4(3)-2=13; Emma Walker 1-0=2; Hallie Pullig 2-0=4. Totals: 14(5)-9=42
Cedar Creek Scoring: FG(3)-FT=TP
Alivia Lee 0-3=3; Mary Grace Hawkins 4(1)-0=9; Caroline James 2(2)-7=13; Mallory Smith 2(2)-0=6; Zoey Venters 0-2=2; Avery Ryan 6-1=13. Totals: 14(5)-13=46.
Scoring By Quarters
Quitman (10-8) 18-9-1-14=42
Cedar Creek (10-2) 11-15-6-14=46
