Lady Panthers cool down Northside’s hot start for Monday night win in The Pit

PERRY — Perry (6-7) overcame their own turnover streak and a hot start from Northside to take down the Lady Eagles in a close one, 50-47 in The Pit.

Northside (8-3) hit four three-pointers in the first quarter to put themselves ahead for the first two and a half quarters before the Lady Panthers put together a run and put themselves back in the game.

For Perry head coach Austin McIntyre, the Lady Panthers willingness to consistently compete is what helped propel them in the second half.

“I think the main thing [is] we kept competing. It wasn’t necessarily us doing a whole lot wrong, but we were out of position a little bit,” he said. “Second half, we came out, we played a lot more [man-to-man] instead of being in a zone. I think that helped us a little bit.”

McIntyre said one of his early findings is that the Lady Panthers are more competitive in that style of defense, which showed as they swarmed Northside in the paint and were able to secure some rebounds and get out in transition.

Neither team started well offensively in a slow-paced game, but Jazmine Burgess helped open things up for the Lady Eagles with a pair of triples in the first quarter to help break the stalemate. Brynli Burch and Zayla Turner added a trey of their own to help Northside out to a 16-11 lead after the first.

The steady back and forth continued into the second, but the Lady Panthers couldn’t pull closer than the first quarter margin.

Northside racked up the fouls and put Perry in the bonus fairly early into the second. Free throws were the primary source of the Lady Panthers’ offense in the period but they couldn’t convert enough offensively to make a meaningful dent in their deficit, trailing 31-24 at the half.

Turnovers were a central figure in that issue. Whether it be procedural or forced by the Lady Eagles, Perry coughed up the ball routinely, robbing themselves of extra possessions.

Some of them came from trying to make cross-court passes to break a press, and others came from simple over and back calls. The solution to that in McIntyre’s eyes is watching film.

“I think [watching] film goes a long way for us,” he said. “We got a lot of players that aren’t used to varsity minutes…a lot of that is on me, letting them watch it and then getting them in the right spot.”

The pace started to pick up in the third quarter and about halfway through Perry had outscored Northside 6-2, but still trailed 33-30.

Cam McKenzie’s three-pointer from the top of the key fell through the net and excited the crowd with 3:52 left in the period.

The Lady Panthers finally took the lead with another shot from behind the arc but the battle continued into the fourth quarter. Northside’s Taylor Johnson finished an and-one to put the Lady Eagles back ahead with 4:02 to play but a shot under the basket gave Perry the lead for good with 2:38 left on the clock.

UP NEXT

Perry is back in action on Friday, Jan. 2 at home against Dooly County at 6 p.m.

Northside will return home to play Northside-Columbus on Tuesday, Dec. 30 at 3 p.m.