BY ROB DAVIS
FOR THE OBSERVER
AUBURN — The Lee-Scott girls basketball team avenged an early season loss to the Lady Tigers from Childersburg Friday with a nail-biting 48-46 victory to stamp the team’s ticket to the state regionals in Montgomery.
“We lost this game last year so this was a really big accomplishment for us,” Lee-Scott sophomore Clarke Ivatt said. “We were going crazy and cheering in the locker room because we get to go to the regionals for the first time.”
Ivatt scored 30 points and was clutch from the free throw line as the game came down to which team could deliver from the line with the pressure mounting. Sutton Lewis, Haynes Keesee, Maggie Herndon and Ivatt all showed ice in their veins by making free throws late in the game and Keesee drew a charge with under a minute to play, which proved to be a critical change of possession.
“I’m just really proud of them and happy that they get to go to the Sweet 16,” Lee-Scott Head Coach Corye Harrison said. “It’s such a big deal and I’m so proud to be their coach. They battled their tails off today.”
Trailing by two with just 1.8 seconds to play in the game, Childersburg had one last chance to tie the score or win with a three. The Lady Tigers inbounded the ball from half court on the right side to Muleyuh Keith who led the Lady Tigers in scoring with 15 points. Keith was immediately double-teamed by Keesee and Herndon but attempted a desperation heave from beyond the three-point line that fell short as time expired.
“I don’t know if we played our best game, but we played good enough to win,” Harrison said. “We knew they were gonna jump everything, and we knew they were gonna be more physical than we were. We couldn’t keep number 10 off the glass to save our life, but we did get some big rebounds at the end. Haynes Keesee taking that charge at the end of the game was huge.”
After trailing by six at the half, Childersburg led by two points at the end of the third period. However, Ivatt scored the first eight points of the final period that she highlighted with a steal and breakaway layup. With both teams battling for loose balls and rebounds, the final three minutes came down to which team could hit their free throws.
“We shoot free throws every day in practice so I was pretty calm at the line,” Ivatt said. “I just tried to think of it as any other game.”
The Warriors will travel to Alabama State University to face the Saint James Trojans at 9 a.m. on Feb. 18 in the Sweet 16.
“We’re in the Sweet 16 for the first time in Lee-Scott girls history so this is a big deal,” Harrison said. “There’s also a Parker McCollum concert tonight, so they’re all excited about getting out of here and going to the concert.”
Boys
Lee-Scott’s boys basketball team earned a trip to Montgomery on Saturday with a dominant 71-40 victory over the visiting Altamont Knights at Samford Gymnasium on the campus of Lee-Scott Academy. The Warriors will face Montgomery Academy on Feb. 18 in the Sweet 16
regionals held at Alabama State University.
“I thought we played a great game,” Lee-Scott head coach William Johnson said. “We shot the ball well and we were 40% from the three-point line and 80% from the free throw line.
Lee-Scott point guard Haiden Harper led all scorers with 18 points and Barrett Cook and William Liles both added 12 points for the Warriors.
Aiden Owens led the way for the Knights with 15 points.
The Warriors took control early in the game, hitting four consecutive three-pointers to take an 18-7 lead at the beginning of the second period.Harper hit two of the threes with Jack Fuqua and Gray Hayley each adding one. Using a suffocating man-to-man defense, the Warriors held the Knights to just four points in the second period.
“We were mentally focused coming into the game,” Harper said. “We knew if we shot the ball well and stuck to our game plan that we would
come out on top.”
Altamont found it difficult to find points against the Warrior’s pressure defense as Lee-Scott went on a 18-5 run to end the first half with a 33-12 lead. Johnson credited his team’s ability to stay focused with such a big lead.
“We had a couple of lapses there in the third quarter but I thought we did a good job of continuing to play our game and stick to the game plan,”
Johnson said. “I was happy that we were in a position to let some other players get in the game for some valuable minutes.”
Already up by 20 the Warriors went on a 18-8 run in the final period as Liles found open lanes to drive to the basket for layups. The Warriors also out rebounded the Knights by 22.
“We’re excited to go down to Montgomery and put up a good fight against Montgomery Academy,” Harper said. “We need to work on our defensive pressure and making better passes to find the open shot, but I think we’ll be fine.”
Lee-Scott defeated Montgomery Academy 44-41 back in November, but Johnson knows that both teams have evolved and gotten better since the first meeting. The Warriors are now averaging 68.8 points per game while Montgomery is averaging 64.5.
“We are in the toughest regional in the state of Alabama,” Johnson said. “Every team we play will be elite. I think we’re elite and we’re gonna have to win two elite games. When we play in that dome on Wednesday there will be four elite teams in our regional and all of those teams have beaten 7A schools and 6A schools. It’s a tough challenge, but our guys
understand that and they are ready and looking forward to it.”
