By Chris McCarthy/Editor
Glencoe battled back from an early deficit to post a 45-37 victory over Sardis on Monday (Jan. 18) in the Etowah County Schools girls basketball tournament quarterfinals at Gadsden State.
The No. 5 seed Lady Yellow Jackets (15-6) advanced to Wednesday’s semifinal round, where they will face No. 1 seed Southside.
Trailing 20-18 at halftime, Glencoe outscored the No. 4 seed Lady Lions 18-9 in the third quarter. Sardis never got back within four points down the stretch.
“We started to take better care of the ball in the second half,” said Glencoe head coach John Blackwell. “We also changed our defense up to take their point guard out and made another guard try to run their offense. That tended to work in our favor in the second half.”
The Lady Lions led 13-7 after one quarter, and Katelyn Beasley’s basket at 6:20 of the second period made it a 15-9 advantage.
Sardis scored only once more from the field for the rest of the first half, however, and the Class 3A, No. 10 Lady Yellow Jackets took advantage of the dry spell. Laura Poovey’s layup with 48 seconds left tied the game at 18, and Brennan Ingram’s put-back with 20 seconds remaining sent Glencoe into the break with a two-point lead.
That lead quickly increased to double digits after halftime. After Beasley’s bucket at 5:32 of the third quarter forced a 20-20 tie, the Lady Jackets took control with a 15-6 run.
Bethany Chamblee’s 3-point basket cut the deficit to eight points, but a buzzer-beating trey from Sally Tinker provided Glencoe with a 38-27 lead after 24 minutes.
Six points fourth-quarter points from Kaylee Mashburn helped keep the Lady Lions in the game. Her layup with 47 seconds left narrowed the gap to 41-37, but Sardis had to foul the rest of the way, and Poovey converted 4-of-6 shots over the final 33 seconds to seal the win.
“We just didn’t seize the game when we had the chance,” said Sardis head coach Scott Sandlin. “We were in the game at that point (in the third quarter) and had tons of easy looks at the basket, but we couldn’t convert. Anytime you can hold a team like Glencoe in the mid to low 40s, you should have a chance to win the game, so I think we did a decent job on defense. But all year long, we’ve struggled to produce enough points.”
Poovey finished with 20 points, while Tinker added eight and Beasley six.
Mashburn paced Sardis with 10 points, followed by followed by Selena Tarvin with eight and Krista Hubbard with six.
Sardis did out-perform Glencoe at the free throw line, shooting 71 percent (10-for-14) to the Lady Jackets’ 58 percent (14-for-24).
“If we made out free throws like we normally do, that game’s not as close as it was,” said Blackwell. “We usually shoot about 70 percent as a team, and we have a couple of girls who are shooting around 80 percent, so tonight definitely was an off night for us in that area.”