Published: December 05, 2008 11:23 am      

Healthier Stonewall girls stuff Roff

Tupelo upsets host Lady Wolves

Vanoss — Top seed Stonewall had won four of its first six games heading into Thursday night’s semifinal showdown with Roff at the Pontotoc Conference Tournament, despite the fact that the team’s two senior leaders, Shelby Lackey and Tyla Transue, had been battling some nagging injuries.

Before Thursday’s contest, though, Stonewall coach Christie Jennings declared, “We’re starting to get healthy.” Then she watched Lackey and Transue prove her right.

Lackey scored a game-high 15 points and pulled down nine rebounds, Transue had a solid all-around game, and sophomore Mindy Holland recorded her second double-double of the season in leading the Lady Longhorns to a 51-35 victory over the Lady Tigers and into Saturday’s (6 p.m.) girls championship game. Stonewall will face third seed Tupelo, which raced to a big early lead and held on to upset second seed Vanoss, 42-37.

Thursday’s schedule also included the consolation finals in the boys and girls brackets, and both games went pretty much true to form — although both favorites struggled before finally getting victories.

The fourth-seeded Allen girls, who lost an overtime heartbreaker to Roff in their tournament opener, led just 25-20 at halftime but dominated the final two periods en route to a 57-39 blowout of Wanette. On the boys side, second seed Vanoss — upset by No. 7 Calvin Tuesday — got another huge game from Kendal Curtis and used a pivotal 10-2 run late in the fourth quarter to finally subdue stubborn Asher, 55-47.

Tonight’s action will be highlighted by a pair of boys semifinals — with top seed Roff facing No. 4 Tupelo at 7:30 and third seed Stonewall meeting Calvin at 9 p.m. — and the third-place girls contest between Vanoss and Roff at 6 p.m.

GIRLS

Semifinals

Stonewall 51, Roff 35

Lackey was 0-for-2 from the field in the first quarter and took just one shot in the fourth, but she was 6-for-12 in the second and third periods and teamed with Holland to help Stonewall to a solid 39-31 rebounding advantage over the smaller Lady Tigers.

“With every game Shelby is getting healthier and healthier,” Jennings said of Lackey, who has battled a shoulder injury all season. “I think her inside game is back to where it was. She’s still rushing her outside shot a little bit.”

Holland, one of only two Stonewall starters to play the final four minutes of the game, finished with 14 points and pulled down 10 rebounds, and Transue chipped in with seven points, five rebounds, six assists and three of the Lady Longhorns’ eight steals.

“Mindy could have had 30 points — she missed some shots she usually hits,” Jennings said. “But she puts herself in position to get a lot of rebounds.”

While Holland, Lackey and Transue dominated the final three quarters, Stonewall had an early savior in sophomore Savannah Burwell, who scored the Lady Longhorns’ first seven points — all in a 62-second span — and finished with nine points, all in the first half.

“Savannah came in and settled the waters down,” Jennings said. “It was kind of ugly there at the beginning.”

Stonewall trailed 2-0 when the 5-5 Burwell scored on a putback with 5:12 left in the opening quarter, and she added two free throws at the 4:33 mark to give the Lady Longhorns the lead for good. On Roff’s ensuing possession, Burwell got a steal and hit a 3-pointer at the other end to make it 7-2 with 4:10 left in the quarter.

Roff (3-5) eventually made it a two-point game later in the period on a 3-pointer by Catie Tolliver with 1:50 left and a free throw by Jodie Byers 43 seconds later. But Transue banked in a 3-pointer with 50 seconds remaining to push Stonewall in front 12-7 heading to the second quarter, and Roff never got closer.

Lackey and Holland combined for 13 points in the second period, and Stonewall led 31-19 at the break after Tolliver drained a long 3-pointer at the buzzer. Stonewall led by as many as 16 points (39-23) in a third quarter that saw the two teams combine to hit just 7-of-28 shots and ended with Stonewall up 39-26 after Tolliver hit another 3-pointer with 45 seconds left. The Lady Longhorns grabbed their biggest lead of the night at 49-29 on a putback of an offensive rebound by Paige Curtis (her only shot of the game) midway through the fourth quarter before Jennings sent in her reserves, leaving only Holland and sophomore point guard Brettney Brady on the floor from the quintet that started the game.

Byers finished with 14 points, Tolliver was also in double figures with 10 for Roff, and Spencer Phillips added seven points and pulled down nine rebounds for the Lady Tigers.

Tupelo 42, Vanoss 37

Tupelo (4-3) played its best nine-plus minutes of the season so far to open the game and led 19-4 after sophomore Shanna Davidson drove the baseline and hit a one-handed floater with 6:38 left in the half. But the Lady Tigers didn’t score again for the rest of the quarter and carried a 19-13 lead to the locker room when Vanoss scored three points in the final 15 seconds — the first two on a putback of an offensive rebound by Logan Anderson to cap a three-shot possession and the third on a free throw by Nikki Hawley after time had expired.

Vanoss (3-5) trimmed the lead to two in the second half but never led, due in large part to an opportunistic Tupelo defense that forced 17 turnovers and grabbed 10 steals — six of them by senior guard Josie Soukup, who scored all 10 of her points and hit a pair of big 3-pointers after the break.

“Josie’s ball-handling and running the team is the key to what we’re doing,” first-year Tupelo coach Bill Godwin said after seeing his club win for the fourth time in its last five games following an 0-2 start. “She’s using her experience to motivate the other girls. It’s nice to have a little general out there doing her job.

“I was happy because we executed as a team,” Godwin said. “Our team defense won this game. We played great team basketball tonight.”

Offensively, Tupelo got solid efforts from Davidson and fellow sophomore Chesna Henry, who have emerged as the team’s most consistent scoring threats early in the season. Davidson was an efficient 5-for-7 from the field and finished with 13 points (11 in the first half) and 11 rebounds, and Henry — who combined with Davidson for all of the Lady Tigers’ points before the break — scored 14 points and added seven boards.

“What Chesna and Shanna have done this year is amazing,” Godwin said. “They’re learning to get the ball and look to score. They’re doing a great job.”

Senior Stefani Burk had the only basket for Vanoss in the first 7:55 of the game and eight of the Lady Wolves’ 13 before the break and finished with a team-high 14 points. She also pulled down 11 rebounds to complete a double-double of her own. Anderson added 11 points, including nine in the second half.

Consolation Championship

Allen 57, Wanette 38

Allen (4-1) struggled to put Wanette away in the first half, but the Lady Mustangs dominated over the final 16 minutes. They led by as many as 23 points (57-34) late in the game, and they appear to have one of the rising stars in the conference in freshman forward Amber Coody.

A bruising 5-8 post player, Coody showed an ability to drive the baseline and hit the outside shot (she had one of Allen’s two 3-pointers in the game) and finished with 15 points to lead a balanced attack.

Senior guard Chelsea Hill had a big second half and was also in double figures with 10 points, and four other players scored at least six for the Lady Mustangs.

Kailee Himes finished with 11 points to lead Wanette.

BOYS

Consolation Championship

Vanoss 55, Asher 47

Vanoss blew all of an early 12-point advantage and led just 43-42 after Asher’s Matt Johnson hit a jumper with 2:15 to play before the Wolves went on their pivotal spurt over the next two minutes to finally put the Indians away.

Senior Zack Scoggin, who broke out of a mini-scoring slump with 17 points (11 in the second half), ignited the run with a floater at the 1:45 mark, and Curtis and Seth Wulfert added four straight free throws apiece down the stretch.

Vanoss appeared on its way to a blowout early, sprinting to a 13-1 first-quarter lead fueled by the scoring of Curtis and Scoggin and mistakes by the Indians, who committed eight of their 14 turnovers in the game’s first six minutes.

But Asher (5-4) trimmed the deficit to 16-5 after one quarter and continued to chip away. The Indians scored the final four points of the second period and trailed just 25-20 at the break, and Fred Oliphant gave Asher its only lead of the night at 26-25 on a layup with 5:36 left in the third.

Scoggin converted a conventional 3-point play and added another basket off a nice assist from Curtis over the next 40 seconds to put Vanoss back in front at 30-26, then Asher finished the quarter on a 9-5 run to tie the game at 35-all heading to the fourth.

Curtis — who was 16-for-17 from the line, including 8-for-8 in the fourth quarter — finished with 24 points to run his total to 82 in three tournament games and also pulled down 11 rebounds for a solid double-double. He and Scoggin combined for all but three of the Wolves’ 25 first-half points.

After being shut out in the first quarter, Derek Claytor finished with 15 points to lead Asher, and Oliphant (11 points) and Tanner Fowler (10 points and a team-high eight rebounds) were also in double figures for the Indians.