By Gene Schallenberg
LUFKIN — Leading by 16 points at the beginning of the fourth quarter, it appeared as if the Lady Dogs would coast to an easy playoff victory.
The only problem was that Kirbyville never stopped playing. The feisty Ladycats made a game out of it.
Barely, the Lady Dogs held on, escaping with a 52-51 victory in Angelina College’s Shands Gym to advance to the area round of the Class 2A playoffs.
The Lady Dogs (21-8 overall) will play Houston YES Prep North Central in an area-round matchup in New Waverly later this week.
“I’m not happy. I’ll take an ugly win over a pretty loss any day,” New Waverly head coach Eldridge McAdams said. “I’m not satisfied. You can’t be after playing like that. I knew coming in to this facility that we were going to be a little nervous, but we just flat out played terrible.
“We won, though. We live to fight another day. We’ll just get back to the drawing board tomorrow and see what we’ve got to do.”
The Lady Dogs, who despite numerous turnovers, led 45-32 entering the final period. They scored the first three points of the fourth quarter when Myeisha Williams sunk the first of two free throws and Kayla Williams, who finished with 23 points and 10 rebounds, scored a layup on a fast break.
That gave the Lady Dogs a 48-32 lead with a little less than seven minutes to play.
That 16-point margin seemed to be a comfortable lead, but Kirbyville aimed to show that it wasn’t insurmountable.
The Ladycats began applying a full-court press and the Lady Dogs started to have trouble, like they did in the first half, turning over the ball.
Kirbyville also began hitting shots and scoring on second-chance opportunities, which combined with New Waverly’s struggles of holding onto the ball.
Despite having some open looks around the basket, the Lady Dogs just couldn’t get shots to fall.
The Lady Wildcats, however, didn’t have scoring problems and began to chip away at the lead.
Kirbyville cut the deficit to single digits when guard Tkeyah Jones drilled a 3 to make it a 48-41 game. The Lady Wildcats also hit free throws down the stretch, including a pair by Keila Brown to cap a 14-0 run and get within a possession at 50-48 with 1:41 to play.
“We just got lazy on defense,” Lady Dogs junior post Jai Cleveland said.
But Cleveland, who recorded a double-double with 11 points and 14 boards, and Kayla Williams gave New Waverly a big boost late in the game.
Jones looked to tie the game at 50 with a jumper from the paint, but Cleveland blocked the shot, got the ball and passed it to Kayla Williams, who ran down the court and laid the ball in on a fastbreak with 47 seconds to play.
That basket snapped nearly a five-minute scoring drought and provided the Lady Dogs with a 52-48 advantage.
“I was a little scared,” Cleveland said. “I didn’t want (the referees) to call a foul on me (and send them to the free-throw line), but I also couldn’t let her score.”
Kirbyville guard Tynisha Adams made just the second of two free throws after Kayla Williams fouled her to pull the Lady Wildcats to within three.
After Lady Bulldogs sophomore guard Alex Abbott missed both free throw attempts with 12 seconds to go, Brown pulled Kirbyville within one after making both shots from the charity stripe with 5.48 seconds remaining.
Abbott attempted to draw a foul in the waning seconds, but was tied up by a Kirbyville defender and a jump ball was called and the possession arrow pointed in Kirbyville’s favor with 0.7 seconds to play.
Jones attempted a last-second heave from well beyond 3-point range, but the shot fell just to the right of the basket and the Lady Dogs breathed a huge sigh of relief.
The final score may have been closer than the Lady Dogs would’ve liked, but in the end it was just enough to advance.
“I hope we don’t have another game like this,” Kayla Williams said. “It was an ugly win. We did everything we could to lose this game, but we won and that’s a good thing.
“We’re glad that we’re still playing and that we’ll have another game this week. Hopefully, it won’t be as bad as this one.”
