West girls slip past Southeast
By By Jeff Byrd / sports editor
Jan. 8, 2003
A key 11-0 run in the third quarter allowed the fifth ranked West Lauderdale Lady Knights to escape Southeast Lauderdale with the Division 5-3A lead on Tuesday night at Southeast.
West Lauderdale stays unbeaten in division play improving to 4-0 in the league and is now 17-2 overall. The loss was Southeast's first in division play and the Lady Tigers are now 13-5 overall.
Both teams were coming off tournament action over the holidays. West Lauderdale played in a 16-team, multi-state affair in Greenville, Tenn. The Lady Knights suffered both of their two losses at the tournament.
Southeast, meanwhile, prepared itself for a return to the rugged Division 5-3A action by taking on 13th ranked Long Beach at the Enterprise High Tournament. Coach Joe Miller's team fell 75-70 in a shootout.
It was another shootout Tuesday at Southeast.
Kristina Gardner hit four, three-pointers within the game's first 12 minutes to stake West Lauderdale to a commanding 32-16 lead. Southeast, however, answered with a strong push outscoring the Lady Knights 12-2 to close out the half and make it 33-28. Three baskets by Tiwana Pringle were the key to the Lady Tiger run.
A basket by LaShondra Hall cut it to 33-30 at the start of the third quarter. Then Lady Knights answered with an 11-0 run to retake command. J.J, Huggins made two critical inside baskets while Patty Monroe nailed a three-pointer and followed up with two breakaway layups.
Both Miller and West's Jody Hurst felt the run was the key to the game.
Trailing 46-32, Southeast made another push. They went on an 11-4 run to close out the quarter cutting the deficit in half at 50-43. Four free throws from Stacy Tate followed by a three-pointer from LaShondra Hall highlighted the spurt.
Another three by Hall pulled Southeast to within four at 50-46. The Lady Tigers, though, missed a shot and then had another blocked which could've kept the game within four.
Down 56-47, Pringle hit a three-pointer to make it 56-50. Monroe answered for West hitting one of her own to put the Lady Knights up 59-50. She then made a nice basket off a high-low cut to make it 61-50.
Monroe capped her night with a three-point play with 1:01 left to keep the lead at 11, 66-55.
Four points by Sam Smith and two from Ree Newell helped account for the final 70-63 margin.
Huggins led West Lauderdale with 22 points. Gardner had 18 followed by Monroe's 13.
Southeast was paced by Hall with 14. Pringle had 13 while Smith and Shalonda Mitchell each had 11.
