Lady Dragons roll into 8-A finals

By By Jeff Hart

Posted 8:03PM on Saturday, February 11, 2006

JEFFERSON - The Jefferson girls basketball team used a 24-2 run to blow open a close game en route to a 62-46 win over Lakeview Academy Thursday night in the semifinals of the Region 8-A Tournament.

Jefferson will play Hebron Christian in the finals at 7 p.m. Saturday at the Jefferson gym. Lakeview,which came in as the defending region champs, will play Social Circle at 4 p.m. in the third place game.

The Lady Dragons (20-6) led 29-12 following the big run and Lakeview was playing catch-up the rest of the way. The Lady Dragons led by as many as 21 at one point.

"This is still a young team and sometimes they'll play like they're seniors and at other times like freshmen," Brown said. "They did some good things, but we helped them out with turnovers. You can't do that and beat teams the caliber of Jefferson."

The Lady Lions (13-10) played like veterans coming out in the second half using a 9-0 run to get back in the game. They trailed just 46-37 at the end of the third quarter but they wouldn't get any closer. Jefferson closed out the game holding Lakeview to just two points over the final four minutes.

"After we got down by the big score, our goal was to chip away at it. We did that and we got it down to a manageable number," Brown said. "We just couldn't keep from making mistakes. That's what killed us."

Jefferson led 5-3 early when Lakeview went on a 7-0 run to take the lead. Jefferson responded with its big run for a 41-20 halftime lead.

Jefferson was led by Shalita Brooks with 20 points. Amanda Lampley added 13 and Mimi DuBose 11 for the Lady Dragons.

Lakeview was paced by 13 from Nadia Muhanna, despite missing a significant number of minutes because of foul trouble. Lydiann Jacobs added 11.

HEBRON CHRISTIAN 63, SOCIAL CIRCLE 60

Meredith Montgomery poured in 18 points to lead Hebron Christian to a win over Social Circle Friday night in the Region 8-A semifinals.

Hebron used a 22-16 third quarter to take control and then held on in the final minutes.

Lillian Durden led Social Circle with 20 points.