Northeast Lauderdale resembled the behavior of a fruit fly Monday night in the opening round of the South State tournament.
The Lady Trojans were barely noticed, yet hung around long enough to be a nuisance — a nuisance that nearly cost North Pike its season.
North Pike avoided a major upset at home as it held off pesky Northeast Lauderdale 60-49 to advance to Thursday’s 4A South State quarterfinals.
Northeast Lauderdale entered Monday’s contest with an abysmal 5-21 record. That glaring 24 percent winning percentage hypnotized North Pike into almost blowing a 19-point fourth quarter lead against a Northeastern Lauderdale squad which committed an unheard of 42 turnovers.
“We looked at their record and saw 5-21 and we played like we were 6-20 (not 22-4),” North Pike coach Lance Golmon said. “We played down to them.”
The Lady Jaguars immediately controlled the game from the tip, racing out to a 12-3 lead and later went up 27-12 in the second quarter.
But something happened at halftime, and North Pike came out flat. The turnovers piled up, layups weren’t falling and the free throws continued to clank off the rim.
North Pike gave away14 second-half turnovers, including 11 in the fourth quarter
“I think they did (look at the score at halftime and think it was over). I think they did,” Golmon said. “And that goes to some of our leadership. Our leadership played like the game was already over, and we can’t do that.”
North Pike scored only 12 points in the third quarter but came out energized in the fourth to build a quick 49-30 lead. The wheels then fell off at the 7-minute mark.
The Lady Jags went on a four-minute field goal draught as the Lady Trojans ripped off a 17-5 run to cut it to 54-47 with 2:30 left.
The senior leadership Golmon lacked early finally came around with forwards Kaylan Hughes and Precious Jefferson coming up with big baskets.
Jefferson finished with a game-high 22 points, 10 steals, four rebounds and three assists. Hughes had nine points, seven rebounds and six assists.
Junior Nicole Jefferson put in a strong game with 10 points, eight steals and nine rebounds.
“When you go ahead 19 against a team like that, you need to go ahead and put them away,” Golmon said. “We’re lucky, but a win is a win, especially in the playoffs. Right now you just have to keep playing.”
North Pike’s play down the stretch was shades of last Friday night’s district cshampionship game against Lawrence County. North Pike missed 22 free throws and tossed the rock round like a hot potato to help Lawrence County force overtime.
They weren’t much better from the free throw line Monday (9 of 23) but did run 45 seconds of clock before Northeast Lauderdale could even foul in the final minute.
Golmon said he was relieved his team wasn’t on the road during the near collapse.
“I’m glad we played this game here because if they would have started making that run and they would have gotten a crowd into it, I think that could have been bad,” he said.
North Pike will be on the road Thursday when they travel to Forrest County AHS to face Bay High. The two teams previously met Nov. 15 in the first game of the season with Bay coming away with a 64-58 win.
