Lady Warhawks earn first basketball tournament trophy

mbrown@sunmulti.com

Is a lead ever safe against this Rutland High girls

basketball team?

Veterans High’s Lady Warhawks have never been behind in a

game against the Lady Hurricanes so far in the 2012-13 season.

 

Already with a

Region 2-AAAA win at home in this series, Nicole Miranda found her team paired

up with Rutland in the championship game of the Shane’s Rib Shack Veterans

Christmas Tournament Saturday.

Just like what happened in that first encounter, everything

looked great early for the host club with an edge as big as nine points. Then

it was only a one-point game with exactly one minute of regulation time left.

Aspen Coggins sank two free throws at the 28-second mark, and Rutland missed a

potential tying 3-pointer plus the front end of a 1-and-1.

Final score: 33-30 for Veterans’ girls’ first championship

in the three-year history of the Shane’s Rib Shack Christmas event. Coggins

finished with 12 points while forward Jalyn Slaughter scored 13 and took home

Most Valuable Player honors.

It was that combination, Slaughter with a steal and Coggins

with a 3-pointer, that produced the first points of the game. With it also came

a lead the Lady Warhawks didn’t give up. But don’t tell Miranda it was in the

bag from the beginning.

The Veterans defense continued to force first-quarter

turnovers with steals by Slaughter and Kerrigan Poe-Cochran. Miranda’s senior

point guard, Poe-Cochran sank a corner 3-pointer at 4:32 (8-2).

On the offensive side, the Lady Warhawks had a tendency to

give the basketball up as much as they took it away. Poe-Cochran caused another

turnover in the half-court set of Rutland but would have her ensuing shot

blocked.

Miranda took her team off the full-court press and into a

half-court zone. Three times in a row it stopped the Lady Canes, and as

Slaughter knocked away an inside pass for a fourth stop, Coggins sank a 3 for

the nine-point bulge, 11-2, at the 48-second mark.

Somebody in a green jersey finally got through the zone to

stick a short jumper in the lane. There were six seconds left, and it set an

11-4 score for the second period.

Rutland made it five in a row with a quick trey from a

corner. Veterans would not score from the floor until 4:11 on a Coggins pass

down low to Slaughter. That’s because the Lady Canes used up most of the clock

keeping the basketball outside the zone and settling for long-range shots.

Rutland would make one of those to bring Veterans’ lead to

four, 16-12. Slaughter responded by going low again, making a steal and

blocking a shot. With a pair of turnovers in the final two minutes, and a

backdoor high-low play from a post to a guard, the Lady Canes had the lead down

to a single point.

Poe-Cochran, standing in a corner, threw up what looked like

a desperation 3. It went in, thus staking Veterans to a 21-17 halftime lead.

In the third quarter, the Lady Warhawks had no success from

the outside. The best the hosts could get were free-throws until, at 4:30,

Courtney Palmer and Khayla Owens worked together for a field goal (27-20).

Slaughter blocked three more shots, but through some

unforced giveaways her team could not build a bigger lead than eight with the

fourth period still to play.

Veterans had six turnovers in the final quarter and only

made four out of 10 shots at the foul line. Rutland used a 5-0 run to close

within three with only less than a minute gone. It took more than half the

quarter for the Lady Warhawks to register a field goal, and it came from

Slaughter after she stole a lob pass. (31-25).

The Lady Canes made just two of their foul shots (11

attempts) and missed a key lay-up off a turnover. They maintained possession to

score at 1:21 for 31-28. Twenty seconds later they would use an offensive

rebound for the final basket.

Veterans defeated Perry High, another region rival, 44-29 in

Friday’s semifinal, which had 70 total foul shots taken, but only 31 made.

Slaughter had 11 points while Perry’s Aliyah Cheatham sank four 3-pointers for

13 points. Cheatham scored 10 in Perry’s 47-33 first round win against Worth

County.

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