Everything that went so well for the Perry High girls
basketball team in the first half was not there in the second half. Warner
Robins’ Demonettes rallied to take Saturday’s non-region rivalry showdown
45-37.
Warner Robins scored one field goal in the first quarter,
that coming at the beginning from Kate Hill. The Lady Panthers reeled off the
next 12 in a row starting with a 3-pointer from freshman Yoshi Shennett.
Shennett put in two 2-pointers from assists by Curshala
Riley and Courtney Winston. These were give-and-go plays with the passes coming
from the high post. Shennett then passed the ball off herself twice for assists
to Maya Wade and Winston in transition.
Perry led by double-figures for most of the second quarter,
which began at 12-3. Wade broke the Demonette press with an assist to Alexis
Ervin, who would score 10 in the game off the bench. She was also on the
receiving end of a feed from Deja Robinson against the pressure.
The Lady Panthers led 23-11 at 2:25 when Winston found an
open goal out of a timeout. Warner Robins would later get a steal from Ce Ce
Carroll and Asha Stegall’s baseline penetration dish to Hill. Things began to
change when, at :16.3, Wade picked up her third foul. Perry went from leading
24-13 to 24-17 at the half, Stegall getting a steal and score with less than 10
seconds to go.
Warner Robins had a 10-5 run in the third period, Perry
opening with five turnovers and giving up a 3-ball by Destini Johnson. Riley,
at 4:26, had the home team’s first points on a high-post jumper. But at 2:42
Dacien Ambler, from a takeaway, made the game-tying 3.
Shennett, with nine first-half points, crashed the offensive
glass for her only field goal of the second. Perry in fact had three offensive
rebounds towards the end of the period, and Ervin’s second-chance 3 kept the
home team in front, 32-27, going into the fourth.
The Lady Panther shooting, however, was nowhere else to be
found, and the Demonettes had 14 in a row. Carroll put the visitors in front
for good at 5:25 by making a 3. Stegall penetrated the zone twice for a
three-point play and assist to Hill.
Stegall, making all nine of her free throws, had 15 points
while Hill scored 12 and Carroll eight.
• The Lady Panthers will not go through the entire 2012-13
season without a 2-AAAA win. Against Westside at home on Jan. 29, Perry won
41-34 as Aaliyha Cheatham had 14 points (no 3-pointers).
Perry’s two other recent 2-AAAA girls games did not go as
well. Baldwin won a Jan. 25 meeting by two, 35-33, when the Lady Panthers led
16-15 at the half. Cheatham had 12 points.
Curshala had eight points against both Westside and Baldwin.
It was against Howard on Friday that the Lady Panthers fell
46-35. The visitors went to the foul line 22 times in the fourth quarter alone
with 17 makes. Perry did not take a foul shot in those eight minutes and had
just four for the whole game.
Wade scored 12 points with four assists. Her team led at the
half 17-14.
HHJ News
