DAWSONVILLE — Patience was the key word used by both coaches in describing the East Hall girls 60-42 win over previously unbeaten Dawson County Friday night in a key Region 7-AAA game at the Dawson County gym.
“I thought (East Hall) was much more patient this time and they really shot the ball well. The better team won tonight,” Dawson County coach Steve Sweat said.
“We were more patient, and I think that was the real key to the game,” East Hall coach Justin Wheeler said. “We didn’t do anything different on offense except to move the ball around to who was open. The girls did a great job.”
It was a crucial game for both teams. The Class AAA No. 2-ranked Lady Tigers (17-1, 6-1 Region 7-AAA) could have put a veritable stranglehold on the region with a win. Instead, No. 10 East Hall (15-4, 6-1) moved into a tie for first with a five-game sprint to the finish over the next two weeks.
Wheeler said earlier in the season they were looking for that signature win. Was this it?
“It was a good win but in the end it’s just another region game,” he said. “It won’t mean much if we turn around and lose the next one.”
The Lady Vikings kept their turnovers to a minimum and ran their weave offense to near-perfection against the Lady Tigers. In the two teams’ first meeting last month, Dawson County used its usually-suffocating full-court press to erase a late East Hall lead and then win in overtime.
This time, East Hall found the weaknesses in the Lady Tigers’ zone with Ashlyn Ellison, Kylah Mize, and Jenny Edwards taking advantage. When the Dawson County defense collapsed, they found Carly Winters open for 3-pointers.
East Hall never trailed taking a 6-0 lead on 3-pointers from Winters and Mize just two minutes into the game. Dawson County battled back with a 7-0 run in middle of the first quarter, capped by a 3-pointer from Kaylee Sticker, to tie the game at 8.
The Lady Vikings took control from there. They forced two consecutive Dawson County turnovers, one a steal and layup by Ellison, to eventually take a 12-11 lead into the second quarter.
The East Hall offense did a masterful job of breaking down the Lady Tigers zone in the second quarter finding seams for driving layups by Mize and Ellison and also using three offensive rebounds by Edwards to keep possessions alive. The Lady Vikings opened the period with a 9-0 run for a 21-11 lead and took a 27-15 lead with just 51 seconds left in the half on a driving layup by Edwards.
Dawson County stormed back to cut the lead to 27-20 on a three-point play by Eliza Sillesky and a basket by Karlie Bearden. But East Hall took a 29-20 lead into halftime when Mize found another crease in the defense for a driving layup with 2 seconds left.
“We’re a good shooting team but we remembered to go inside tonight,” Wheeler said. “That opened things up for us.”
Dawson County’s last run came in the middle of the third quarter on a 10-3 spurt to close the gap to 35-30 with 3:44 left. The Lady Vikings answered in a big way.
East Hall closed the period with a 12-2 run, capped by a Winters 3-pointer, for a 47-32 lead going into the fourth quarter. Dawson County would not get closer than 12, the rest of the way, at 42-30 on a Sticker 3-pointer with 3:19 left.
“We did a good job of answering when they made runs,” Wheeler said. “I was just real proud of how they stayed poised.”
East Hall dashed any hopes of a Lady Tigers comeback this time hitting 11-of-13 free throws in the fourth quarter, including 9-of-11 by Ellison, who finished with a game-high 24 points.
Mize and Winter each added 16 points for the Lady Vikings. Edwards finished with just four points but pulled down 15 rebounds for East Hall.
Sticker led Dawson County with 16 points. Bearden added 13 points and 10 rebounds and Sillesky had 11 points and seven rebounds for the Lady Tigers.
NOTES: East Hall held the Lady Tigers 18 points below their scoring average and the 42 points were a season-low. Meanwhile, the 60 points for the Lady Vikings was the most scored on Dawson County this season.
EAST HALL BOYS 63
DAWSON COUNTY 57
East Hall fought off a pesky Dawson County squad to take a big Region 7-AAA win on the road.
The Vikings (13-5, 6-1 Region 7-AAA) stayed within a game of first place Banks County with the victory. The two teams meet for a second time on Tuesday in Homer.
“This was a big win,” East Hall coach Joe Dix. “This is probably the hardest place to get a win in the region. (Dawson County) always plays us tough. It’s never easy. The game against Banks County wouldn’t have meant anything without this one.”
East Hall opened the game with a 10-5 run but the Tigers (8-10, 1-6) closed out the first quarter with a 7-0 spurt to grab a 12-10 lead. The Vikings answered with a 13-0 run early in the second quarter for a 26-17 lead but Dawson County closed within 29-24 by halftime on a Jeremiah Crumley 3-pointer.
In the third quarter Dawson County retook the lead 34-33 on a rare four-point play by Cullen Reed but the Vikings finished the period with a 10-6 run to grab the lead for good.
East Hall led by as many as eight in the fourth quarter.
Tylor Brown poured in game-high 22 points to lead East Hall. Luke Cooper added 13 and Andy Lara had 12 for the Vikings.
Crumley paced Dawson County with 20 points. Gabe Bryant added 17, including three monster dunks, and Reed finished with 15 for the Tigers.
East Hall improved to 3-0 on road in region contests.
http://accesswdun.com/article/2016/1/362992/basketball-lady-vikings-hand-no-2-dawson-co-first-loss-east-hall-boys-hold-on