Published: March 15, 2007 04:15 pm            

East girls' run ends in semi

Lady Raiders take eventual champ Rose Hill to the wire

March 14, 2007 — MOREHEAD - East Carter battled eventual champion Rose Hill as closely as anyone in the 16th Region Girls’ Basketball Tournament, but in the end Emily Queen backed up her tournament MVP honor by leading the Lady Royals to a 64-56 semifinal victory on Friday at Morehead State’s Ellis T. Johnson Arena.

A four-point play by Lady Raider senior guard Alicia Myers closed East Carter to within a point (44-43) with 4:58 remaining in the game. However, Queen responded to the threat by calmly knocking down all seven of her free-throw attempts in the final 4:05 to secure the Lady Royals’ victory.

Rose Hill Christian coach Pam Euton credited Queen’s leadership, experience and free-throw shooting as being the driving force in helping her team persevere.

“Free throws and playing with a little bit more discipline (was the difference),” she said. “We had the original five out there on the floor (to end the game).”

Rose Hill (16-9) scored the game’s first 10 points and led 13-3 at the end of the first quarter. East Carter (21-10) did not get on the board until Lakota Burge made the second of two free throws with less than three minutes remained in the opening period.

The Lady Royals extended their lead as high as 10 points on two occasions in the first half. However, the Lady Raiders did not let Rose Hill run away, using their 3-point shooting prowess to close the gap just before halftime.

Behind a pair of shots from behind of the arc from senior guard Tawnee Tackett, East Carter used a 6-0 run in the final minute of the first half to close the deficit to five points (22-17) at halftime. Tackett’s treys were the only ones for the Lady Raiders in the opening half.



“I give East Carter a lot of credit because I told (our) girls they are strong from the beginning and strong in the end,” said Euton. “They can really shoot the three.”

Statistically, the first half was even. East Carter held a 15-14 advantage in rebounding and also shot a slightly better percentage from both the field (35.0 to 32.0) and 3-point range (22.2 to 20.0). The major difference came in turnovers. East Carter committed eight, while Rose Hill was charged with just three.

The Lady Raiders won the third quarter (15-14), trimming a point off the deficit to trail 36-32 at the end of the period.

The Lady Royals pushed their lead as high as eight points (34-26) after a Britt Faulkner jumper with 2:22 left in the period, but East Carter closed out the quarter by hitting a pair of 3-pointers from Kristin Easterling and Myers.

“We were kind of spotty at times,” said Euton on her team’s performance guarding the Lady Raiders’ 3-point attack. “We let too many get off. Thank goodness they missed some.”

After Rose Hill’s Abby Dundon scored on a lay up 26 seconds into the fourth quarter, East Carter rattled off the next five points (on a Leah Sargent lay up and a Brittany Dearfield 3-pointer) to cut the margin back down to one at 38-37 with 6:48 to play.

However, Queen and Laura Terry came to the rescue, scoring the next six of the game’s next eight points to push Rose Hill’s lead back up to five with 5:16 left on the clock.

Myers kept the Lady Royals from pulling away after getting fouled while converting a 3-pointer and then adding the free throw for a four-point swing with just less than five minutes to go.

A Faulkner lay up 33 seconds later gave Rose Hill a three-point cushion and the team protected that lead by converting 10-of-11 foul shots, led by Queen’s 7-for-7, over a stretch of nearly three and a half minutes late in the game.

East Carter could only get as close as within three-points the rest of the way.

Tackett finished with 12 points, six assists and four rebounds in the final game of her career. Myers added 11 points, two rebounds and two assists also in her last game.

Sargent nearly recorded a double-double with 10 points and nine rebounds, while Lindsay Combs chipped in six points and nine rebounds.

Queen finished with 23 points, including hitting 11-of-12 free throws, to lead all scorers. She also added 10 rebounds and three assists. Terry tallied 17 points, 13 rebounds and three blocks; while Faulkner had eight points and nine assists. Dundon came off the bench to score eight points.

East Carter’s rebounding edge held up in the end, finishing with 36 to Rose Hill’s 35. The Lady Raiders’ shooting also remained consistent, converting 35.1 percent for the game. They also were 8-for-31 from the 3-point line.

East Carter cut down on its turnovers in the second half, committing just three.

Hitting 59.1 percent of its second-half shots from the floor pushed Rose Hill’s field goal shooting to 44.7 percent for the game. However, the Lady Royals made only 1-of-6 3-pointers. Rose Hill also made 21-of-32 free throws and turned the ball over just eight times on the day.

Rose Hill went on to win the title with a 61-51 victory over Russell in the championship game.

Tackett and Sargent represented East Carter on the 12-player all-tournament team.

        

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