GAINESVILLE — It wasn’t easy, or pretty, but the North Hall girls will take it.
The Lady Trojans survived a wild fourth quarter to hold off North Murray 45-41 Friday night in the first round of the Class 3A state playoffs.
“It was kind of a strange game for sure but we’ll take the win and move on,” North Hall coach Kristi House said. “It got a little crazy in that last quarter.”
Did it ever. In fact, the final 11:47 was about as nerve-wracking as it can get in the win-or-go-home playoff atmosphere.
North Hall (19-9) looked to have things under control when Ansleigh Ferguson capped a 10-0 Lady Trojans’ run with a stick-back basket with 3:47 left in the third quarter for a 33-18 lead. After a slow start, North Hall turned to its press and generated eight North Murray turnovers during a 27-8 run.
“We went to the press to get some energy and I thought we did a really good job in the second quarter,” House said. “We felt pretty good at that point.”
However, the Lady Mountaineers (19-10) switched tactics going with an aggressive full-court press of their own and forced three North Hall turnovers to chip away and close the gap to 34-28 with 31 seconds left in the period. But a Grace Hollifield basket to close out the quarter and a Maci Gillespie basket to open the fourth quarter pushed the lead back to 38-28.
But North Murray stayed with its press to great effect forcing three more North Hall turnovers and holding the Lady Trojans scoreless for over four minutes. A Sarah Plemmons basket capped a 12-0 run to give the Lady Mountaineers a 40-38 lead, their first since 10-9 in the first quarter, with 3:06 left.
But Hollifield answered right back moments later with perhaps the biggest shot of the Lady Trojans’ season thus far with a high-arcing 3-pointer to reclaim the lead 41-40.
The teams traded several turnovers as the dueling defenses continud to press. But Hollifield hit a pair of free throws with 43 seconds left and a Ferguson basket with 19 seconds left sealed the pressure-packed game.
“We’ve been in some big games already this season and I think the girls were able to draw on that and not panic,” House said. “Grace played a great game as did Ansleigh. We may have let up a little when we got the big lead but we made the plays when we needed them.”
Both teams started slow as North Hall missed its first five shots of the game, with four coming on one possession. The Lady Mountaineers missed their first three before Korbin Tipton drained a 3-pointer more than a minute into the contest for a 3-0 lead.
The Lady Trojans finally got on the board with baskets by Hollifield and Ferguson on consecutive possessions to take a 4-3 lead. But #14 hit a pair of 3-pointers for North Murray and helped them to a 10-9 lead after the first quarter.
The Lady Trojans struggled in the opening 8 minutes missing their first nine 3-pointers. However, a 9-0 run into the second quarter, capped by a Macy Clark trey, the first of the game, reclaimed the lead for North Hall at 15-10.
Rylee McCall then hit two more 3-pointers for the Lady Trojans for a 21-15 lead to close out the first half.
Hollifield finished with 14 points to lead North Hall. Gillespie had 9 points, McCall 8, and Ferguson finished with 7 points for the Lady Trojans.
Tenley Gladson paced North Murray with 20 points, including six 3-pointers. Plemmons had just 9 points and Tipton 8. The pair came in averaging 28 points a game combined.
