Knights grab OT win

By By Marty Stamper/EMG sports assistant
January 17, 2004
All the wrong signs were there. A 13-point lead in the first half and a 36-27 lead going into halftime had totally disappeared.
Unlike a couple other instances, however, the West Lauderdale Knights went on to take a 73-65 Division 5-3A win over Forest in overtime Friday at Collinsville.
West improved to 2-3 in 5-3A and 16-6 overall.
After a 19-19 tie at the end of the first period, the Knights ran off 11 straight points and 17 out of 19 to post a 36-23 advantage with two minutes remaining in the first half.
Forest closed to within 36-27 at the break.
The Bearcats were only down by three to start the fourth quarter.
A 3-pointer from Daniel Huggins gave West a 52-47 lead with 4:57 to go in regulation, but Forest got baskets from Jonathan Bennett and Michael Townsend to close to within one and the battle was on.
The Knights appeared to have a safe 61-56 lead with 30 seconds to go, but Jacquas Jones buried a trey and the Knights were guilty of a foul away from the ball. Although the Bearcats got nothing at the charity stripe, Jones rebounded the miss and stuck it back for a tie at 61 with 15 seconds left that led to overtime.
Chris Seaphus hit a 3-pointer and was 4-of-6 at the free-throw line in overtime as West avoided a disastrous 1-4 start in league play. Just Tuesday in a three-point loss at Newton County, Seaphus was 4-of-13 at the charity stripe.
The Knights were 30-of-44 at the line after going 7-of-27 against Newton County.
Seaphus led West with 29 points. Huggins and Mark Ford both scored 12 with Lee Nelson adding seven.
Forest, 13-5, got 18 points from Josh Graham, 16 from Jones, and 10 from Townsend.
Girls
West 79
Forest 32
The Lady Knights had no problem in the opener, scoring the game's first 12 points and building a 42-9 lead in the first half before taking a 42-14 advantage into the break.
West led by as many as 43 points in the second half.
The 79 points are the season high.
West (16-5, 3-2) got 20 points from Shannon Lloyd, 14 from Vankeila Wilson, 12 from Kaihia Fitch, and eight from Cierra Jennings.
Forest, 4-15, got 10 points each from Brittany McClendon and Octavia Kincaid.