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Lady Panthers advance to championship game
Sarah Fulghum scored six points for Union, Leslie Bittenbinder and Mary Catherine Edmondson added two points each. Kaley Sullivan and Bittenbinder also led the Lady Panthers' smothering defense that prevented Lumpkin from getting into any kind of rhythm on offense. Lumpkin returned four starters off a team that went 17-10 and 9-6 in Region 7AAA, last season. Still Lumpkin had no answer for the Lady Panther defense as they held Lumpkin to 13 points below their season average from a year ago and shut down Lumpkin's star player, Ashley Brown. "Kaley (Sullivan) is an awesome defender! Kaley (Sullivan) and Candace (Williams) alternated on (Ashley) Brown and both did a great job on her. She (Ashley Brown) can shoot the three, but she really is a slasher that wants to attack the rim, so we just wanted to stay in front of her and make her have to dish and keep her off the boards," said Coach West. The Lady Panthers also ended a three game losing streak to Lumpkin with their last win over the Lady Indians coming in the 2004-05 season, when this years seniors were just freshmen. Union County opened up strong, taking a 9-3 lead after the first quarter, despite Bittenbinder picking up her second foul with just over three minutes remaining in the quarter. After taking a 4-0 lead to start the game, Lumpkin got within one at 4-3. That's when Williams hit her first three pointer of the day to stretch the Union lead to 7-3 with 1:31 left in the opening frame. Williams would lead all scorers with five points in the quarter. The second quarter would be all Lumpkin County as the Lady Indians would outscore Union 19-8. The Lady Panthers held an 11-7 lead with 6:45 to play in the first half when Lumpkin's, Ashley Brown picked up her second foul. However, Lumpkin would respond with a 9-0 run and took their first lead of the game at 4:57 in the second quarter. Lumpkin led 16-11 when Edmondson and Williams would each hit two free throws to cut the Lumpkin lead to 16- 15. That's as close as Union would get in the first half as Lumpkin took a 22-17 lead into halftime. The Lady Panthers came out strong in the second half just like they did to begin the first half, except this time, they wouldn't let their lead slip away. Gowder scored the first basket of the half but Bittenbinder would quickly pick up her third foul. Bittenbinder would remain in the game and hit two from the charity stripe to get Union within one at 22-21. On her way to a ten point quarter, Williams hit a her second trey of the game to give Union the lead, 24-22 with 3:35 left in the third quarter. Lumpkin would never lead again but they did tie the score at 28-28 when Williams hit her third and final trey of the game with 55 seconds remaining in the quarter to give Union a 31-28 lead. Lumpkin would never get any closer and after Fulghum added a basket with 20 seconds left, the Lady Panthers outscored Lumpkin 16- 6 in the quarter and led 33-28 after three."We did three things at halftime," said Coach West. First, we talked about the great job that our bench did in keeping us in the game and how important it is for MC, Brittany, and Whitney Kelley to give us the minutes that they did and keep us in the game. When we got in foul trouble was when we fell behind; it wasn't like they were out playing us, we just had Kaley, leslie, and Kayla on the pine. We just needed to get our players off the bench and back into the game. Secondly, we talked about getting the ball inside to Kayla more and capitalizing on what we thought was a mismatch, and finally, we reemphasized the need to win the rebound battle!" After a free throw from Williams and Gowder and a basket from Fulghum, the Lady Panthers took their largest lead of the game at 38-29 with 4:45 left in the game. Lumpkin managed to get within four by scoring five unanswered points and only trailed 38-34 with 3:58 to play. Williams added two more free throws and at the 3:30 mark, Union led 40-34.
Bittenbinder fouled out with 2:50 to play and as a result of the foul Lumpkin converted one free throw to get back within five. That's when Gowder took over and outscored Lumpkin 6-1 over the final 2:37. Gowder would lead Union with eight points in the final quarter. "Everyone knows that Candace and Kayla are our big two, but Kaley, Sarah, and Leslie are all capable of double digit nights on any given night, so I think at least one of them will step up every night and give us that third scorer every night," said Coach West. The win gives the Lady Panthers a shot at the Tip-Off Tournament title and no less than a second place finish. The highest Union County's girls have ever placed in this tournament is third place. |
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