BROOKLYN — Despite what the record indicated Thursday night, Forrest County AHS was far from perfect.
The consensus No. 1 girls team in Class 4A held off a furious South Pike rally to record a 57-48 win in the quarterfinals of the 4A South State tournament.
The loss sends South Pike back to Magnolia with a 21-10 record but coach Janice Felder was more than happy with the effort against Forrest County (26-0).
The Lady Eagles got off to a horrible start and were down 26-5 after the first quarter.
“I told them to lay it all out on the line, just leave it out there,” Felder said. “And they continued to fight. A couple of calls here and there, and a couple easy shots we missed, we could have easily won the ball game.”
South Pike roared back to cut it to 53-46 with 1:42 left in the game. It was the closest margin since the first quarter when Forrest County led 11-3.
Following several Forrest County miscues, South Pike had two golden opportunities to cut into the deficit even more.
Senior Milesha McNulty, who battled foul trouble the entire game and had only six points, missed a 3-pointer from the corner that would have made it 53-49.
When the Lady Eagles got the ball back, they immediately turned it over. The Lady Aggies quickly scored on the other end to make it 55-46 with a minute to play.
“I told them I couldn’t have asked for anything more,” Felder said. “I was continually telling them ‘It’s not over. One basket at a time.’ ”
That’s exactly what South Pike did after the first quarter. The Lady Eagles held them to four points in the second quarter to go into the half down only 30-17. They faltered a bit in the third and fell behind 46-31 going into the final eight minutes, but slowly chipped away.
Forward Jamaya Carter led South Pike with 17 points and 17 rebounds while Akayla Powell chipped in with seven.
South Pike held Forrest County twins Samantha and Kimberly Clemts in check for most of the night. Samantha Clemts led all scorers with 21 points and Kimberly Clemts added 16, but they were kept off the boards (eight rebounds combined).
Felder was worried about the size advantage Wednesday but the Lady Eagles actually outrebounded the Lady Aggies, 39-27.
It was the Lady Aggies’ full-court pressure, however, that won the game. They caused 17 first-half turnovers using their lengthy defenders. South Pike looked lost in the shuffle, throwing errant passes left and right.
“The press has been our Achilles’ heel all year,” Felder said. “We are so impatient and people press us until we settle down. We are so short and we can’t do that. That’s when people jump on us.”
