Big rally falls short for Newton
By By Austin Bishop / EMG Regional Sports Director
March 6, 2003
JACKSON Almost.
With 3:25 left in their 59-58 loss to Coldwater in the MHSAA Class 2A State Tournament in the Mississippi Coliseum on Wednesday afternoon it looked as if the Lady Tigers of Newton High School had no chance.
Newton trailed by 16 points and their coach, Crandal Porter, had just been hit with a technical foul.
But the senior-laden Lady Tigers began to mount some momentum and had the Coldwater Lady Cougars holding on for dear life as NHS actually took the lead with less than a minute to play.
After Newton took it's final lead of the game at 56-55 on a three-pointer by a heavily guarded Kotreece Bender with 51.3 seconds left in the game, it looked as if the Lady Tigers may have snatched the win away from Coldwater.
But the Lady Cougars knocked down four free throws over the remainder of the game and kept Newton from scoring until Bender hit a running 8-footer with three seconds left to play.
But at that point the game was over, because Newton was out of timeouts and Coldwater didn't have to throw the ball in as time ran out.
The game began with a spurt by the Lady Tigers.
Newton scored the first seven points of the game and led 18-11 with 7:11 left in the half, following a three-pointer by Twila Clayton.
But then the Lady Cougars hit three consecutive three-pointers, including back-to-backers by Tiffany Reed, to begin a 17-0 run. When the dust had settled Coldwater, now 29-7 on the season, had taken a 28-18 lead.
The Lady Cougars led 30-22 at the half and continued to widen the gap in the second half, eventually going ahead 51-36 with 3:25 left to play in the game.
The Lady Tigers began to close the gap, eventually getting it to 55-53 on a free throw by Clayton with 59.4 seconds left. When Clayton missed the second shot, Coldwater loss the rebound out of bounds, turning it back over the Newton. That set up Bender's go-ahead three-pointer.
Lamaesha McAdory hit two free throws with 38.7 left in the game to put the Lady Cougars back in front, then Coldwater added another free to go up 58-56.
Coldwater's Angelica Phillips went to the line with 11.6 seconds left with a chance to ice the game for the Lady Cougars by making both free throws. She made the first one, but missed the second.
In the scramble for the rebound the ball bounced off a Coldwater player and went out of bounds with just under nine seconds to play.
As Bender drove down the right side of the floor the ball was knocked out of her possession from behind. When Bender regained control of the ball she was already inside the three-point arc and headed toward the goal with full momentum so she had no option other than to go ahead and make the two-pointer with three seconds left.
Coldwater then held the ball out of bounds as time ran out.
Clayton led Newton with 29 points, while Bender scored 13 and Creoashia Williams tossed in nine.
Sharlene Murphy led Coldwater with 17. With the win the Lady Cougars move into Saturday's Class 2A championship game against Broad Street at 1 p.m.
