Published: December 11, 2006 02:43 pm            

Strong in semis

Stonewall, Vanoss roll into tournament finals

STONEWALL — Don’t look now, but the top-seeded Stonewall Lady Longhorns may be returning to the form that had them ranked at the top of Class A to begin the 2006-07 season.

Coach Christie Jennings’ club scored 10 straight points during the final three minutes of the first half to break open a close game and overwhelmed upset-minded Allen 57-35 Thursday night in the semifinals of the Pontotoc Conference Tournament inside a packed Murphy-Roberts gymnasium.

The Lady Longhorns improved to 6-1 with the win and will meet Vanoss Saturday night at 6 p.m. in the girls championship game. The Lady Wolves used a stellar defensive performance and a big game inside the paint from Alyson Tuley to knock off Tupelo 48-38 in the other semifinal contest.

In the girls consolation championship game earlier in the evening, the Roff Lady Tigers cooled off a hot Calvin team 58-42 while the Vanoss Wolves used a big first half to bury Calvin 66-47 to win the boys consolation crown.

Tournament action resumes tonight with Allen and Tupelo meeting at 6 p.m. in the girls third place game with two boys semifinal contests to follow at 7:30 and 9 p.m.

GIRLS

Stonewall 57, Allen 35

For the first 13 minutes, the Lady Mustangs (2-1) battled Stonewall toe-to-toe. In fact, despite trailing 18-9 after one quarter, Allen had out-rebounded the much taller, more physical Lady Longhorns 14-8.

After falling behind by 10 early in the second period, the Lady Mustangs used an 11-5 run capped by a pair of free throws from freshman Ashton Dennis to trim the SHS advantage to 26-22 with 2:56 remaining until halftime.

“Survive! Let’s just survive until halftime,” Mills preached from the bench.

But the Lady Mustangs couldn’t. By intermission, Allen was without one of its floor leaders, Danli Mills, who had banged up an already injured knee on a hard collision at the 5:25 mark of the period. (Mills would return at the 2:11 mark after a short trip to the lockerroom.)

Kristie Byrd started Stonewall’s pivotal run with four straight free throws. Cherokee Brown, who was left wide open along the perimeter for most of the first half, drained a 17-footer and Shelby Lackey hit a 3-pointer just seconds later, following an Allen turnover. After Felicia Logsdon’s free throw with 5.7 ticks remaining, Stonewall’s lead had ballooned to 36-22.

Jerrica Mullicane’s long runner at the halftime buzzer made it 36-24 at the break. But the damage had been done.

“We knew it was going to be a tough game ... playing a rival like this,” Jennings said. “We wanted to out-rebound them. We knew we could out-size them. We wanted to crash the boards and look for our post players. Overall we were pretty pleased.”

Stonewall (No. 10 in Class A) turned things around on the boards after the slow start. During the second quarter, the Lady Longhorns held Allen to just TWO rebounds while pulling down 15 themselves. Stonewall ended the game with a 47-33 rebounding edge.

“We talked about that for the past two days because they rebounded so well in the first game of the tournament,” Jennings said. “We knew we had to go to the boards and block out.”

Allen hit just 1-of-8 field goals in a slow-paced third quarter, and after Rena Serpa’s two free throws to start the fourth, Stonewall’s lead had grown to 20 at 47-27.

Stonewall (6-1) helped free up its inside attack by hitting five of its six 3-pointers in the first half. Lackey hit three of her first five attempts.

“They tried to pick players out to leave open, and we kind of made them pay for that sometimes tonight,” Jennings said. “Every single guard found a way to get involved.”

Cherokee Brown led the SHS attack with 16 points while Serpa and Logsdon were busy clogging up the paint. Serpa finished with 11 points and 11 rebounds while Logsdon followed with 10 points and 13 boards. Kristie Byrd also scored 11 points for SHS and was 6-of-6 from the free throw line.

Mullicane had 14 points, six rebounds and three steals to pace Allen but no other AHS player would hit double digits. The Lady Mustangs hit just 10-of-40 field goals.

Vanoss 48, Tupelo 38

The Lady Wolves (6-2) kept Tupelo’s one-two punch of Kendra Pearce and Katie Campbell in check with a suffocating ‘triangle and two’ defense. The pair hit just a combined two of their first 17 field goal attempts.

Still, Tupelo (4-4) stayed within striking distance until the Lady Wolves finally built a double-digit lead they wouldn’t relinquish when Alyson Tuley hit back-to-back baskets down low to start the fourth quarter that gave her team a 36-24 cushion.

Rodi and Whitley Sutton drew the tough assignment of chasing Pearce around for most of the night and it worked as the THS standout finished with just nine points on 2-of-12 shooting. Campbell finally got untracked late, scoring 10 of her team-high 17 points in the fourth quarter.

“I wouldn’t trade those two for anything,” VHS head coach Gary Self said of the Suttons. “Those are two kids (Pearce and Campbell) who I felt like if we played them straight up man-to-man, there’s no telling how many points they would have scored on us.”

Vanoss watched its lead grow to 18 at 48-30 with 2:30 left in the game on a pair of Kylee Gillum free throws.

Tuley was a force for the Lady Wolves, getting free inside for 19 points and nine rebounds. Delia Henley came off the bench and scored eight points for the Lady Wolves while Stefani Burk added six points and seven rebounds.

“Alyson is figuring out how to earn her space down there. There’s always a space where a person can get off a shot, you just have to go find it,” Self said.

It was Tupelo that would win the battle of the boards 44-37 as Pearce grabbed 11 rebounds and Campbell pulled down seven.

Vanoss is making its fourth championship game appearance in the past five seasons. Self said his team will have to play well against Stonewall to have a chance at its first tournament title in that span.

“We match up with them a little size-wise, but they have so much speed, experience and athleticism,” he said. “We just hope they haven’t hit their stride yet. Once they hid their stride, I’m not sure anyone around here will be able to beat them.”

Roff 58, Calvin 42

The Lady Tigers (6-2) opened the game with a 17-3 run and Calvin never recovered.

Roff led by 26 on three different occasions in the second half as the Lady Bulldogs — who had played well in their first two tournament games — seemed to run out of gas.

Kayla Balthrop nearly recorded a triple-double in leading the Lady Tigers. She finished with 18 points, 10 steals, nine rebounds and four assists. Jessica Bacon added 12 points, five rebounds and four assists while Miriam Bung continued her steady play for coach Scott Morgan’s group with 10 points. Jodie Byers scored 11 in the RHS balanced effort.

Emily Hassler led all scorers with 22 points for Calvin (3-7).

BOYS

Vanoss 66, Calvin 47

The Wolves (4-5) took control right from the start, bolting to leads of 20-6 and 30-13.

Vanoss hit 8-of-16 field goals to open the game compared to just 2-of-16 for cold-shooting Calvin (3-7).

Tyler Mackey finished 8-of-13 from the field en route to a game-high 19 points to pace the Wolves while Evan Anderson had 16 points thanks to a 9-of-12 effort from the free throw line before fouling out.

Jake Hawley added 13 points and 10 rebounds for Shawn Reeves’ team.

Calvin’s Kaleb Blaylock was the only Bulldog to reach double digits with 10 points while Lewis Johnson added nine points and eight boards.

        

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