Philly boys and girls win
By By Rocky Higginbotham / special to The Star
Feb. 17, 2004
PHILADELPHIA The first night of the Division 5-2A Tournament brought one upset, not to mention a pair of wins that may have been a little tougher than expected.
Both boys' teams from Newton High and Philadelphia had their hands full early before pulling away for first-round wins, while Lake's girls fell victim to an upstart performance by Ackerman.
The sixth-seeded Lady Indians pulled out a thrilling 76-74 win over Lake, the lone girls' contest which was sandwiched between Newton's 62-54 win over Ackerman and Philadelphia's 62-46 victory over Lake in boys' action.
There are three more first-round games tonight. Host Philadelphia takes on the Mississippi School for Math and Science in a girls' contest at 5 p.m., Kemper County's boys get MSMS at 6:30 and Kemper's girls battle Williams-Sullivan at 8 p.m. Semifinals are slated for Thursday.
Ackerman 76
Lake girls 74
The Lady Indians broke the press and got a basket from Jennipher Childress with six seconds remaining to break a 74-74 tie and cap a chaotic final two minutes.
Ackerman's girls were in control early, leading by double digits before settling for a 41-34 advantage at the half.
Lake forged ahead 57-55 at the end of the third quarter, and the teams fought a seesaw battle in the fourth before Childress' game winning basket. She was hammered on the play but missed the free throw, and all the Lady Hornets could muster was a desperation 3-point attempt at the buzzer.
Crystal Wise poured in a game-high 26 points to lead Ackerman, with 17 of them coming in the second half. LaSandra Patton scored 14 and Krista Joyner 13, while Childress and Cydney Dean tallied nine each.
Ackerman will take on the winner of tonight's Philadelphia-MSMS contest in Thursday's 4 p.m. semifinal.
Valerie Harris led Lake with 21 points, while Arnitra Lay scored 16 and Courtney Harris seven.
Philadelphia 62
Lake boys 46
The host Tornadoes, also a No. 3 seed, outscored Lake in all four quarters but weren't in control until the final minutes.
In fact, the Hornets were up 19-18 midway through the second quarter before Philly's 8-1 run to end the first half sent the Tornadoes into the locker room with a 26-20 advantage.
Philadelphia, which improved to 19-8 on the season, also had a 15-4 run to end the third quarter to push its lead to 44-30.
Trey Beamon (21 points, 14 rebounds) and Eric Lyons (19 points, 10 rebounds) both had double-doubles for the Tornadoes, while Bobby Goodin scored 16 points to help PHS overcome 24 turnovers.
Danny Towner tallied 16 points and Desmond Morales had 11 points and six steals for Lake.
Philadelphia, which also owned a 35-26 edge on the glass, will take on either Kemper County or MSMS in Thursday's 8:30 p.m. semifinal.
Newton boys 62
Ackerman 54
Coach Crandal Porter's fourth-seeded Tigers earned a 5:30 p.m. date with regular-season league champion Williams-Sullivan on Thursday with their first-round win.
Newton jumped out to a double-digit lead in the first half, only to see Ackerman close within 45-40 going into the fourth quarter.
Cornelius Caraway paced the Tigers' balanced scoring attack with 13 points, while Kolby Tillman had 12. Brandon Shelton chipped in 10, Walter McDonald had nine and Courtney Ruffin eight.
Ackerman got 12 points from Torrance Ashford, 11 from Alfonzo Maxwell and nine from Dumars Kennedy.
