Northside basketball flirts with comeback in loss to Veterans; Lady Eagles can’t overcome surge from Lady Warhawks

KATHLEEN — In a game filled with exciting back and forth moments, technical fouls and region implications, the Northside Eagles (2-3, 0-1 Region 2-5A) fell 82-63 on the road to the Veterans Warhawks (3-4, 1-0 Region).

Here are three observations from the first region game of the year in Houston County:

PHOTOS: See more shots from the game.

Moving too fast

Early in the game Eagles coach Buck Harris could be heard from the sidelines telling his team to slow down. In their attempt to run the floor and cut their early 14-7 deficit Northside turned the ball over, over pursued steals and missed defensive rotations.

As the game sped up in the second quarter with seven combined 3-pointers exchanged and both crowds erupting with each one, the problem intensified.

Vontrez Quainton nailed three of his seven 3-pointers in the second quarter as the Eagles brought it within six at 32-26 with about three minutes to go until halftime.

From there, though, it was all Warhawks as they closed out the period on an 11-2 run; That lone Northside score came at the buzzer from Braylon Price.

The Eagles flirted with cutting the lead to single digits in the second half, but could never get over the hump and truly mount a comeback.

“Inexperience. Playing too fast. Not paying attention to detail, missing the defensive assignment, not knowing what we need to do, what we’re doing defensively, not covering the rotation. It’s a lot of things,” Harris said on what prevented Northside from coming back. “We’re still learning, and these guys have a ways to go to understand exactly what it takes in order to be a good basketball team. They’re still fighting against the things they’ve been allowed to do in the past, but some of them are starting to understand what it takes in order to be a better team.”

“We’re a work in progress. I think the effort was fine, we had a chance to get it to single digits, but we can’t turn the ball over, and you can’t leave people open and you gotta rebound the basketball.”

Staying in control of the moment

Harris talked about not wanting to be a volume 3-point shooting team in their loss to Westside-Macon, where they essentially shot themselves out of the game.

That wasn’t so much the case against Veterans, in fact both teams traded 3-pointers in the second quarter as the crowd seemingly roared louder with each one.

It can be easy to get lost in those moments and abandon the game plan to be the next player to hit a three, and while Harris doesn’t have a problem with feeding the hot hand, there were some ill-advised jump shots during that run.

“If the right guys is shooting a three, then it’s not a problem. I think Vontrez had the hot hand tonight and he made some threes, which is great. But if somebody else is coming down and shooting threes and is ill advised and nobody knows he’s going to shoot, then, that’s when teams are gonna run it,” Harris said. “I think we had a few possessions that ill advised shots led to leak outs. Ill advised shots is just like turnovers…guys that make shots, they’re gonna get in the gym and shoot the basketball. They work on that.”

Defensive mistakes

This section goes hand in hand with moving too fast and the inexperience mentioned earlier. Turnovers are a killer in any sport, but you can usually limit the effects of them by playing great defense.

Northside failed to do that on Tuesday as Veterans swung the ball around the perimeter and used actions above the break to get players the ball heading downhill.

The Eagles usually did pretty well getting out for contests, but couldn’t get back in position as the Warhawks found plenty of relatively open shots in the paint.

When asked about those missed rotations, Harris didn’t hesitate to take the blame.

“That’s all on me. We went over that action yesterday in practice, when they curl off and they bring [Aiden Sweenor] to the ball, but all that stuff is on me,” Harris said. “I’m accountable defensively for the things that we’re doing…We got to be better conditioned to understand certain guys want to play a lot of minutes, but you got to be able to, if you’re going to play hard, you got to be in shape and play a lot of minutes.”

“We’re not in shape, and it’s a long of things that they’ve got to learn that they haven’t been taught. I’m very detailed in some of things that I do. So it’s a process for me and it’s a process for them. So I got to be patient and help them get there.”

Lady Warhawks 66, Lady Eagles 44

The Northside Lady Eagles (3-3, 0-1 Region 2-5A) dropped their third game in a row in a 66-44 loss to the Veterans Lady Warhawks (4-2, 1-0 Region) on Tuesday.

The opener was delayed by about 45 minutes when junior forward Ayonna Scott suddenly collapsed in the second quarter; After Scott was carried away on a stretcher, Veterans gathered at the center of the court and said, “For ‘yonna” before closing out the half with a 13-3 run.

At the time of writing there is no official information on the state of Scott.

Three observations:

“For ‘yonna”

After the roughly 45-minute delay, Veterans outscored Northside 13-3 to take a 40-26 lead at halftime after the Lady Eagles trailed by about three for much of the first half.

It was neck and neck, but the 45-minute break, three minutes of game time and an abbreviated four-minute halftime threw off Northside’s rhythm and it was something they never really recovered from.

“We got cold and they got hot, that’s what it was. They were coming off and drilling and they’re probably playing for their teammate. It is what is is, I mean, that’s what we’ve been doing all year long,” Lady Eagles coach ChoRhonda Gwaltney-Harris said. “We haven’t been taking care of the basketball, and that’s where it went downhill after that, and we couldn’t figure it out. Even when we try to fight back, it’s always a mental lapse somewhere in every single game.”

“We’re right there, and then, mentally, we go someplace else. We can’t focus long enough to be able to sustain an entire game. So that’s where we are. We’re gonna try to work on that in practice, being able to focus on what we’re doing. But, we take care of the ball, we box out, that game is a lot closer than what it is.”

The main issue going forward

The biggest problem for the Lady Eagles is far and away the turnovers.

Taylor Johnson is a good post player who can muscle her way through plenty of defenders, Madi Burch has done a solid job handling the ball and Justice Lester and Jazmyn Brown can play big roles in a scrappy defense.

However, none of that matters if Northside can’t take care of the ball.

“Turnovers. That’s a huge, big [problem], it ain’t even close,” Gwaltney-Harris said. “Turnovers, boxing out. One thing all my teams are known for is boxing out, so we’re gonna figure that one out if we don’t figure nothing else out. And just being mentally focused the entire game, and being able to contain the entire game.”

Players who’ve earned their spot thus far

Though it’s been an up and down season early on with mental mistakes and some bad fundamental moments, there are some players who’ve earned their spot in the rotation and been productive.

Johnson, as mentioned, is a solid post player who has more size and strength than many defenders she meets down low. She does have a tendency to go into multiple defenders, and could put up close shots with a bit more touch, but there’s a reason she’s Gwaltney-Harris’s go-to player.

Burch has a tendency to pick up her dribble too quickly when facing pressure which can lead to turnovers (to be fair so can dribbling in some pressure situations), but has otherwise done a solid job as the primary ball handler. She doesn’t make too many ill advised passes, but so far no Lady Eagle is exempt from those.

Then there’s Lester and Brown, who are scrappy perimeter defenders that lead the defensive effort for Northside.

There’s rarely results in the first year of a rebuild, but most of these players (Lester is the only senior mentioned) will return next year which makes their growth in 2024 that much more important.

UP NEXT

Northside’s next game will on Friday, Dec. 13 at home against Rutland at 6 p.m.

Veterans will take part in HoCo’s Bear Brawl on Friday, Dec. 13 and Saturday, Dec. 14, playing Peach County and Valdosta respectively at 4 p.m.