Lady Eagles’ turnover struggles put Lee County out of reach

WARNER ROBINS — Northside’s (13-10, 4-4 Region 2-5A) biggest weakness all season has been their offense, particularly their propensity to turn the ball over.

That vice was especially gripping during Tuesday’s 43-34 loss to Lee County (17-7, 8-1 Region).

“We’re handling it by committee a lot of times…23 games in we’re still trying to figure it out,” Head coach ChoRhonda Gwaltney-Harris said. “We got an opportunity to get third [place in the region]. The ball’s in our court. If we decide to take it it’s ours…hopefully we can get ourselves together. It’s a little disheartening that we’re still turning the ball over [as much as we are] this late in the season.”

The Lady Eagles only scored two points in the opening period, and both of those came from two separate trips to the free throw line.

It was rare they finished a possession without committing a turnover. The method varied widely, too.

The Lady Trojans didn’t play particularly well, their coach had frequent complaints of their offense’s stagnation. But they were able to put together enough baskets here and there to build a 13-4 lead with 5:45 left in the second quarter.

A timeout followed and from that point Northside scored 11 points for a game-high 13 in the period to take a 23-15 deficit into halftime.

Their most consistent scoring came from getting to the basket and drawing fouls. But there were two problems: They had trouble getting to the paint without turning the ball over and they missed a lot of free throws.

In addition the Lady Eagles’ defense fouled players on the interior often, giving the Lady Trojans free opportunities to score on a night they didn’t find that easy.

“[Lee County] scored their points on us missing the transition and missing rotations, and fouls and second shots,” Gwaltney-Harris said. “A lot of it was us. They put the ball in the hole a little bit, but more of it was what we didn’t do.”

Scoring on back-to-back possessions in the final minutes of the third quarter helped give Lee County a 15-point lead entering the final period which was only lightly contested. Brynli Burch’s late three-pointer cut the final deficit to single digits.

UP NEXT

Northside will head over to Veterans for a makeup game from Saturday on Feb. 5 at 6 p.m.

Lee County’s regular season ends with a region home game against Coffee on Feb. 7 at 6 p.m. They would need to beat Coffee by 28 points in order to host the region tournament.