Eads Girls Get OT Win over Tigers, 47-41

Enter Districts In #Two Spot

By Betsy Barnett

February 27, 2004

The Eads Eagles will enter this weekend’s District Playoffs with a must-win over the Kit Carson Wildcats in a semifinal game on Friday. Eads had beaten the Wildcats in the regular season, 54-43, however, it’s a new season and anything can happen. The semifinal game will be in the Lamar Community Building beginning at 3:30 p.m. on Friday.

Eads enters the District tournament seeded second behind the No. 1 ranked and undefeated McClave Cardinals. The young Eagle group has been playing some excellent ball as of late getting a sloppy conference win over the Plainview Hawks on Thursday night in Eads, 45-20, and then hanging long enough in Cheyenne Wells to earn a hard-fought 47-41 OT win over the Tigers. Finally, last night in the quarterfinal round of the District tournament Eads ended the number 7 seed Plainview Hawk’s season with a 60-26 win.

It was the inside game of Jessica Watts combined with some very good outside shooting by the young core of perimeter players for Eads that got the job done in the OT win at Cheyenne Wells. Early, however, Eads would get numerous good looks but could not put the ball down. Their shooting percentage continued to decline as the first half waned. Sophomore Kerissa Sicklebower and junior Morrell Koch gave Eads some much-needed punch from the outside in the first half while Watts struggled down low against the big Tigers from Cheyenne Wells. But as they game progressed into the second half, Watts found the bucket as she raised her intensity. Sophomore Jennie Richards had struggled throughout the contest but would step up huge with 15 seconds remaining in regulation and her team down by two, 34-32. Richards would be fouled

and was put on the charity line for a one-and-one. She would calmly hit them both and knot the game for Eads. The two free throws put Eads in OT. It would be Watts and a phenomenal team free throw shooting exhibition of 7-for-8 in the OT that sealed the deal for the Eagles. As it often does, the OT came down to the charity line and Eads answered to the challenge. They would score 13 points in the four-minute affair compared with the Tigers 7. There is no doubt that Watts’ leadership on the floor was instrumental in the win. She would end the contest with 19 points while Sicklebower added 10 more.

The quarterfinal District game found Eads taking on Plainview on Tuesday afternoon at the Lamar Community College. The Eagles’ press was too much for the Hawks as a number of turnovers resulted in easy buckets for Eads. It would be the first quarter that sealed the deal for Eads as they blew open the doors hitting for 21 points while holding the Hawks to just three. Eads would get a balanced attack from the floor with point guard Alyssa Hadley stepping up early hitting for three triples in the first half. Eads never looked back and the contest saw some much-needed play from the young Eagle bench late in the third and into the fourth quarter.

Watts again led Eads with 18 points and 12 rebounds while Hadley added another 11 and freshman Destiny Saffer battled her way to nine more.