Veterans Lady Warhawks season ends a game short of Final Four following 57-43 loss at Eagle’s Landing

McDonough- The buzzer sounded, simultaneously signifying the end of a game and of a season Tuesday night. The Veterans Lady Warhawks fell 57-43 at Eagle’s Landing in the AAAAA Elite 8, missing out on making the program’s third appearance in the state semifinals. The season had been quite successful, a 26-4 overall record, a senior headed to a Division I program, second place in Region 1-5A, but the loss ends not only the 2019-20 season but an era. The seniors on this year’s team -Tamia Luckey, Stacie Jones, Keliyah Johnson and Katilyn Shepherd -have been to consecutive Elite 8’s and won a ton of games. At the moment though that might not matter.

The game film will show that the Lady Warhawks gave the ball away a lot more during this game than during any other during this postseason run and quite possibly the season. Eagle’s Landing began the game with full court pressure and seeing how successful it was early on, Lady Golden Eagles head coach Karshaun Peterson decided to keep the pressure on for the entire game. 

Eagle’s Landing took an early 9-5 lead before Johnson put back a teammate’s miss to being Veterans within two points at 9-7 with less than 40 seconds remaining in the first quarter. Lady Golden Eagle’s forward Mone Florence, arguably the player of the game for either side on this night, made a corner three at the buzzer to keep eagle’s Landing ahead 12-7 after the first.

Florence, a junior, would score again at the buzzer to end the first half. During the second half she would prove to be an issue for the Lady Warhawks, scoring whenever her team needed her (six points during third quarter, six points during the fourth quarter).

The second quarter would see Veterans’ postseason experience kick in as Johnson scored to open the period and would rebound a Jones miss and put it back in to cut the Eagle’s Landing lead to two points, 17-15. Florence’s second buzzer-beater of the game gave the home team a 19-15 lead at the half.

The third quarter partly belonged to Eagle’s Landing, they would lead 38-24 when it was done. The other credit belonged to Luckey, who got the opposing crowd going with her tough defense on Florence and senior Jaleah Storr, and with her long-range shooting. Luckey (12 points) made consecutive three-pointers to make the score 24-21. Veterans junior Zykeria Jenkins would finish a drive while fouled and cut the Lady Golden Eagles’ lead to two points, 26-24. 

Good teams respond to challenges and Eagle’s landing is a very good team. The Lady Golden Eagles would finish the quarter in a 12-0 run capped by four points from Florence and four points from Storr. 

Veterans would continue to fight throughout, while also continuing to fold under the press that Eagle’s Landing threw their way.  A Florence drive made the score 46-32 in favor of the Lady Golden Eagles. Jones (11 points total, nine during fourth quarter), headed to Kennesaw State University, asserted herself late, scoring seven points during the final  3:30 of the game. 

Eagle’s Landing will play the winner of the Kell/Jones County quarterfinal. 

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