Cherokee terminates Lady Cats’ season

Published 11:41 pm Saturday, February 23, 2008

CANTON — Dalton girls basketball coach Jeff McKinney didn’t need extra company on the bench Saturday night.

Senior Liz Coffey, selected by coaches as the Region 7-4A Player of the Year, spent a majority of the second half sitting with McKinney and reserve players on the sideline due to foul trouble.

Despite the loss of firepower from the team’s leading scorer, the Lady Catamounts courageously battled Region 5 champion Cherokee before losing, 52-42, in the first round of the Class 4A state tournament at Cherokee High School.

“Without Liz we lose offense, rebounding and some strength,” McKinney said. “She averages right at 13 points a game.”

Cherokee (25-4), which has won three consecutive region titles, took control early in the game with a 13-0 run that produced a 21-13 lead in the first quarter. Dalton went 5:45 — all but one minute of that in the second quarter — without a point and lost an early 13-8 lead.

The Lady Warriors, a No. 1 seed, were forced to withstand Dalton’s furious fourth-quarter comeback before finally putting away the gritty Lady Cats.

“Our girls played hard,” McKinney said. “That was a gallant effort late in the game and I commend them all.”

Cherokee advances to the second round where it will play the Madison County-Marist winner on Wednesday.

The Lady Cats (19-9), a No. 4 seed, are finished, but they didn’t close shop without a fight.

Coffey picked up her fourth foul with 7:42 left in the third period when called for a charge, and she immediately joined McKinney on the bench. Coffey’s teammate, Markeisha Washington, hit a field goal 20 seconds later to pull the Lady Cats to within 27-23.

Cherokee then outscored Dalton 11-1 in just over two minutes to stretch the lead to 38-24 with 3:38 left in the quarter. The Lady Warriors finished the period leading 43-29, with Dalton’s last points coming on a bucket by freshman Amanda Rector with 30.1 seconds on the clock.

Trailing 45-31, Coffey rejoined the fray with 6:43 left in the game, but picked up her career-ending fifth foul at the 5:52 mark. Cherokee’s Brooke Satterfield made two free throws, but the Lady Cats outscored the Lady Warriors 10-2 and sliced the deficit to 49-41 with 2:55 remaining.

“Dalton pressured in that stretch and we didn’t do a good job of handling it,” Cherokee coach Matt Cates said. “We went a little crazy, but eventually got it back under control.”

The Lady Cats scored just one point in the final 2:54 and Cherokee added three free throws to secure the victory that stretched its winning streak to 10.

Cherokee’s poor free throw shooting — the Lady Warriors were 8-for-28 — kept the game closer than Cates would have liked. Cherokee missed six free throws in the final eight minutes, including three in the last 1:23.

Cherokee more than made up for its inconsistency at the charity stripe by pounding the boards the entire game.

“They’re the most physical team we’ve played all year,” McKinney said. “You can tell those girls have spent time in the weight room. They were strong.

“That was a factor when they made their second-quarter run. They crashed the boards hard and we had a hard time getting any rebounds. They also could man us up hard, but our girls didn’t back down.”

Seniors Hannah Mayo and Lindsey Bramlett filled the offensive void with Coffey out of action. Bramlett scored four points in Dalton’s 8-0 run — Mayo and Washington also had baskets — that trimmed Cherokee’s lead to 49-41 with 2:55 left.

Playing her final game, Mayo led the Lady Cats with 14 points. Bramlett added six and Emily Broadrick and April Besley each had five.

Afterwards, Mayo felt like she had been in a very physical game.

“They were really a lot stronger than we expected,” she said. “They played tough basketball.”

The slightly built 5-foot-7 Mayo is not suited for physical play, but thought the loss of Coffey was a bigger factor in the game’s outcome.

“It’s hard to play without your best offensive weapon,” she said. “She (Coffey) can’t score sitting over there on the bench. But we have a never-say-die attitude and we won’t quit. That’s not the type team we are.”

Mayo fouled out with 1:23 left and Washington picked up her fifth foul with 1:39 on the clock.

Five-foot-seven junior Sharon Swanson, who scored 31 points in Cherokee’s 33-28 region championship victory over Osborne, paced the Lady Warriors with 14 points. Thealicia Stephens had 10 while Jerrah Baker and Satterfield each had eight and Mia Johnson six.

Stephens scored five points in the final 31.7 seconds of the first period to trigger Cherokee’s 13-0 run. She capped the spurt with another field goal with 5:24 left in the second period.

“Thealicia made some shots in that second-quarter spurt that was such a huge stretch for us, and we sure needed them,” Cates said. “That stretch was enough to put us in good shape for a while.”