Giving it 110% to the very end, North Adams freshman Tenzlee Burns fires in along three-pointer in the final seconds as the Lady Devils fell 50-46 to Eastern brown on February 5. Burns tallied 26 points in the defeat. (Photo by Mark Carpenter)
50-46 win gives Eastern outright big school crown
With Eastern’s Olivia Uhl closes rapidly, North Adams’ Jacee Davis gets off a three-point shot attempt in the 50-46 title clinching win for the Lady Warriors. (Photo by Mark Carpenter)
North Adams’ Ava Pistole drives the baseline and goes over an Eastern defender for a fourth quarter shot attempt as the two teams battled to the wire on February 5. (Photo by Mark Carpenter)
By Mark Carpenter
People’s Defender
If you were in the high school gymnasium at Eastern Brown High School on the evening of February 5, you got a real taste of the best of girls high school basketball. A capacity crowd, a pair of rambunctious student sections and two teams battling with a big prize on the line, the big school division championship of the Southern Hills Athletic Conference.
Coming into Thursday night’s battle, the North Adams Lady Devils held a slim one-game lead over the host Eastern Lady Warriors, and the game was a winner-take all in the big school as a new conference rule for this season breaks ties by head-to-head results if possible. The Lady Warriors had won the first meeting between the two teams back on January 10 so the winner of the two team’s final conference game was going to take home the hardware.
As it turned out, the second meeting much resembled the first- intense, emotional, and “edge of the seat” action from start to finish., but it was a 13-0 run that spanned the final two quarters that made the difference for the home team as Eastern claimed the outright big school title, hanging on for a 50-46 win, leaving both squads with final marks of 10-3 in conference play.
“We just gave up too many easy baskets,” said North Adams head coach Rob Davis after the tough loss. “We just stood and watched too much and we missed so many easy shots ourselves. We made some runs, got the lead and just started forcing things. We just still have to get better at doing the little things.”
Playing before the packed house, the Lady Warriors struck first, grabbing an early 7-2 lead before a 7-0 North Adams run, fueled by a Jaida Harrison three-ball, put the visitors in front by two. A three-pointer by Eastern’s Olivia Uhl gave the lead back to the home side but North Adams flipped the scoreboard on an Emma Pistole bucket to go up 12-10. That proceeded a 6-0 Eastern run, two of those scores being layups from freshman Bently Burns, and after a Tenzlee Burns drive and score the first quarter closed with the Lady Warriors in front 16-14.
The intensity and excitement continued to build as the second period began with the lead still flipping back and forth, Eastern going up by four at 23-19 after a pair of Sophia Uhl free throws. In the final seconds of the frame, the Lady Warriors’ lead had swelled to 27-22 with Burns at the free throw line and 2.8 seconds on the clock, The North Adams freshman hit the first free toss and missed the second. Teammate Sophia Barlow got her hands on the offensive rebound and flipped it back to Burns who fired in a three-pointer at the buzzer, slicing the Eastern lead to just one, 37-36, at the intermission.
The momentum from that thrilling Burns triple carried over into the third quarter for the Lady Devils as they reeled off the first six points , including another Burns trey, to take their biggest lead of the game at 32-27. That Burns three came with 4:30 left in the third quarter and the Lady Devils went scoreless the rest of the period. In the meantime, Eastern bounced back and too back control, mainly behind the work of Sophia Uhl, who scored seven points in a 9-0 run that put her team on top 36-32 at the end of three.
The Lady Warriors extended that run to 13-0, opening the fourth quarter with back to back scores and a 40-32 advantage. Burns drilled a corner three to get the Lady Devils temporarily back on track, but the home team took advantage of a pair of North Adams defensive lapses that left Eastern’s Alyssa Johnston unguarded on the weak side and the Lady Warriors’ senior banked in a pair of easy layups to put her squad in front 44-35.
The Lady Devils were now in full comeback mode with time not on their side and they began with the gritty and determined Burns hitting another three-pointer from the top of the key to make it 44-38. After a short jumper by Eastern’s Olivia Uhl, burns scored from inside the arc to pull her team within 46-40 but then the Lady Warriors closed the deal. In a scene that Dave Lapham would have called “Bam,Bam, Bam, coffin nails”, the dagger came on an out of bounds play where Eastern’s Alyssa Fisher found herself wide open and then found nothing but net from beyond the arc to make it a nine-point lead with just over a minute to play.
Burns did her part in the final minute, hitting her fourth and fifth three-pointers of the game, but it was not enough as the clock ran out on the visitors and the exuberant Lady Warriors were left to celebrate their second win over North Adams this season, this 50-46 triumph resulting in the big school championship.
It was a balanced scoring attack that led to the win for the Lady Warriors, three girls in double figures- Sophia Uhl with 11 plus 10 each from Olivia Uhl and Alyssa Johnston. Freshman Bently Burns added 9 points and 12 rebounds in the winning effort.
For North Adams, Tanzlee Burns was held to just one point in the two teams’ first meeting, but she left that far behind in the second outing, leading all scorers with 26 points, including five three-point goals. Emma Pistole was solid again, scoring 13 for the Lady Devils.
Coach Davis and his squad were back in action on Saturday, February 7 with a trip across the Ohio River to face the Fleming County Lady Panthers. They shook of the Eastern loss in a big way, getting a combined 53 points from Burns and Emma Pistole (Burns-30, Pistole-23), going 20-24 from the foul line and putting up their highest point total of the season, downing the Lady Panthers 78-67 to improve their overall season record to 14-6.
The North Adams girls finish their regular season this week with a trio of non-conference games- at Hillsboro on Wednesday, at Lucasville Valley on Thursday and at Eastern Brown on Saturday to face Greenfield McLain in a 1 p.m. tip off.
Box Score
North Adams
14 12 6 14 —46
Eastern Brown
16 11 9 14 — 50
N. Adams (46): E. Pistole 6 1-2 13, Barlow 1 1-2 3, Burns 10 1-3 26, A. Pistole 0 1-2 1, Harrison 1 0-0 3, Team 18 4-9 46.
E. Brown (50): Fisher 3 0-0 8, Grimes 0 0-2 0, O. Uhl 3 3-4 10, Johnston 5 0-4 10, S. Uhl 3 5-5 11, Burns 4 1-1 9, Mignerey 1 0-0 2, Team 18 9-16 50.
Three-Point Goals:
N. Adams (6)- Burns 5, Harrison 1
E. Brown (3)- Fisher 2, O. Uhl 1
