Sports - February 2003

East girls come back to win; boys fall

TERRANCE THOMAS, LTN Staff Writer

February 12, 2003 - DENVER — East Lincoln’s Jennifer Henley is not likely to forget the last game of her high school basketball career.

The senior led her team to a nine-point comeback to beat Big South 3-A Conference foe East Gaston 34-31 Tuesday night.

The boys didn’t fare well but were competitive in a 67-54 loss to the Warriors.

In the girls game, East Gaston outscored East Lincoln 11-2 in the second quarter to go up 23-14 at the half.

It has been a rough season for the Lady Mustangs, who only have won once in league play.

But things picked up for the Lady Mustangs in the third quarter.

With a fierce full-court press and good shooting, East Lincoln ran off 10 straight points to take the lead.

Henley was in the midst, driving inside for a basket to start the spurt. Then, after Sara Flemming got two more points on a fast break layup and Brooke Michael’s outside jumper, Henley nailed two more from the outside to put the Lady Mustangs ahead by four points.

It was not a one-person show. It was indeed a team effort. East Lincoln players got the steals, the rebounds and played sound defense the rest of the way. The Lady Mustangs held East Gaston to just eight points in the second half.

But early in the fourth quarter, East Gaston recaptured the lead, 31-29.

For almost four minutes of play in the fourth quarter, it remained 31-29 as East Gaston took some time off the clock.

But with 44 seconds to go, Henley sank a huge 3-pointer from the top of the key to give the Lady Mustangs the lead.

Later Flemming went to the free throw line with six seconds left. She canned two big free throws to make it 34-31.

East Gaston missed a last chance 3-pointer and it was over.

East seniors Carina Vinzant, Megan Pitsikoulis and Henley won their final game at the Corral.

“It feels great,” said Henley who scored nine of her 12 points in the second half.

“It’s good to go out with a bang. It’s always good after being down for so long,” she said. “A good win like that boosts your confidence.”

Flemming added 11 points while Kim Scercy scored all four of her points in the second half.

In the boys game, East Gaston jumped out to a 33-23 half-time lead. For the rest of the way, neither team could dent or add much to the ten-point margin.

East Lincoln got within seven points several times but couldn’t break through.

Meanwhile, East Gaston would go up by 11 but couldn’t do more damage.

It was like two equal teams playing, except one was given a 10-point lead.

The game was decided early.

In the first quarter, East Gaston shot out to a 9-2 lead to go up 15-9 at the end of the quarter.

Early in second quarter, East Gaston outscored the Mustangs 10-5. From that point on, no one could break thorough either way.

“It looks like they are about 10 points better than us,” said East Lincoln head coach Neil Hodges. “We played a little better in the second half. All in all, we played about as good as we could play.”

For East, it was Matt McIntosh’s last game. Hodges started him. He scored two points.

The top scorer was T.J. Smith who hit five 3-pointers and finished with 17 points.

“I was just hitting open shots,” Smith said. “We didn’t get the ball inside. We started doing it in the second half but it was too late.

That’s probably why center Grant Covington scored seven of his 13 in the fourth quarter.

Dante Roseboro had nine in the game.

© 2001 Lincoln Times-News  

Terms and Conditions