The Northview Lady Titans used a dominant second half to pull away from the New Manchester Lady Jaguars, leading to what would become a 55-35 win at home on Wednesday in the second round of the Class AAAAAA tournament.
The Lady Titans (23-6) — a top seed from Region 7 and ranked No. 5 — advance to the quarterfinals for the second year in a row after reaching the AAAAAA semifinals last season. They’ll play the winner of Thursday’s second round matchup between Coffee (No. 2 seed, Region 1) and Stephenson (No. 1 seed, Region 3).
The Lady Titans only led 28-21 at halftime, but outscored New Manchester 17-2 in the third quarter, opening on a 14-0 run. They forced turnovers and won the battle for loose balls, while the Lady Jaguars were slow to get back on defense and failed to transition as Northview worked to find the open man.
Northview took advantage and put the game out of reach, leading 45-23 heading into the fourth.
“When we came in at halftime, we were like, ‘look, we’re only up seven,’” said junior forward Ashlee Austin, who led the Lady Titans with a game-high 18 points. “Let’s get that (lead) to 20, let’s get that to 30. And I think that little pep talk at halftime really helped us come out and say, ‘look, we’re better than this team by this much, let’s go show it.’”
For good measure, the Northview defense continued to dominate in the fourth quarter as the Lady Titans starters held New Manchester to just two points on two free throws until they were subbed out with 1:16 remaining.
With Northview’s starters on the bench, the Lady Jaguars closed the game on an 8-0 run to bring the score to its final margin.
“I thought we played fantastic defensively tonight,” Northview coach Chris Yarbrough said. “We had a game plan. We wanted to force them to make jump shots. ...I thought our effort was fantastic tonight. We executed on offense. ...All around a great game for our girls.”
The Lady Jaguars (20-8), a No. 2 seed from Region 5, came out trading blows with Northview, riding in on the momentum of the first-ever playoff victory for a program in its sixth season. They scored the game’s first two field goals to go up 4-0, but after Makayla Davis’ 3-pointer put Northview up 5-4 the Lady Jags never led again.
But it was a season of firsts for New Manchester on the rise, as it also notched its first 20-win season. The Lady Jags will return all but two seniors from their current 14-player roster.
“I’m disappointed in the way we played in the second half, but overall I’m proud of what we’ve accomplished and happy to have all of them back next year,” said coach Vincent Parks, who has coached the program for all but its inaugural season.
The Lady Jags were led by 6-foot-3 junior center Kyndall Golden’s 15 points and was their only double-digit scorer.
Eden Sample (13 points) and Maya Richards (11) followed Austin in scoring for the Lady Titans, whom Austin said are entering the quarterfinals as a cohesive unit.
“I definitely feel like a lot of the mistakes and chemistry issues we had early in the year and were trying to fix — I feel like at this time of the year we’ve finally figured it out and we’re just working together and always knowing where each other is on the floor,” Austin said.
“It’s coming together at the perfect moment and I think it’s all just working out really well for us.”
(Correction: A previous error in the score was initially reporter.)
About the Author
