Knights, Lady Knights sprint past Carthage
By By Will Bardwell / staff writer
Jan. 21, 2004
COLLINSVILLE West Lauderdale sped up its offense and stepped up on defense Tuesday, trouncing Carthage 69-56.
The Knights kept the Tigers on their back feet all night, crashing the boards and sprinting into fast breaks to keep Carthage from setting up its zone defense.
Chris Seaphus led the Knights with 22 points, including 16 points in the second half. Most of Seaphus' baskets were fast break layups.
Carthage struggled on both ends of the floor. Dexter Leflore led the Tigers with 14 points, and Timmy Thompson scored 11 points.
West Lauderdale's largest lead in the first half was a five-point advantage, but Carthage quickly came within one point. The Knights spent the rest of the half clinging to one- and three-point leads.
Darrell Miller gave Carthage its first lead of the second quarter on a layup late in the period that put the Tigers up 22-21. A Lee Nelson layup reclaimed the lead for West Lauderdale on the team's next possession.
Carthage seemingly sealed a one-point halftime lead on a bucket from Dexter Leflore with 10 seconds remaining in the second quarter, but Mark Ford's one-handed jumper fell for West Lauderdale with just two seconds left on the clock. Ford's shot gave the Knights a 25-24 lead at the break.
Daniel Huggins put West Lauderdale up 28-24 early in the third quarter with a finger roll underneath a Carthage defender's arm. Nelson dropped in another layup midway through the period to give West Lauderdale up by five points for the first time in the second half.
Nelson's basket began a 10-2 run for the Knights, who led 44-33 after Tony Jones sank a layup with four seconds to go in the third quarter.
The Tigers never came closer than eight points for the rest of the game. Chris Seaphus gave West Lauderdale a 55-40 lead after two straight layups on fast breaks in the fourth quarter. Huggins' layup on the next possession brought a 17-point advantage for the Knights, who later led by 18 on two separate occasions.
West Lauderdale is 17-6 overall and 3-3 in district games.
West Lauderdale (girls) 60
Carthage 44
Shannon Lloyd scored 16 points and Vankeila Wilson added 14 as West Lauderdale beat Carthage 60-44.
West Lauderdale is 17-5 overall and 4-2 in District 5-3A. Choctaw Central and Southeast Lauderdale lead the division, and both teams play the Lady Knights next week.
West Lauderdale often led Carthage by double digits, although a handful of runs by the Tigerettes trimmed away at the Lady Knights' leads in the first half.
Vankeila Wilson gave West Lauderdale its first 10-point lead on a layup in the final minute of the first quarter. Wilson's bucket gave the Lady Knights a 17-7 lead that eventually grew to 24-11 in the second quarter, but Carthage closed to within three points after a 10-0 run.
Shannon Lloyd broke the drought for West Lauderdale with a turnaround jumper in the lane and began a streak of 11 unanswered points for the Lady Knights at the end of the first half and the beginning of the second.
Cierra Jennings' three-pointer gave West Lauderdale a 31-21 lead less than a minute into the third quarter. The Lady Knights never led by less than 10 for the rest of the game.
West Lauderdale went up 51-31 on another Jennings three-pointer in the fourth quarter, and the Lady Knights led by as many as 24 points.
Jennings finished the game with 11 points.
Carthage scored just one field goal in the fourth quarter's first six minutes.
