Physical education

Published 12:06 am Saturday, February 28, 2009

Loganville coach Robert Donaldson thought the Lady Red Devils had an advantage with quickness and strength in the post for their first-round Class 4A state tournament game against Northwest Whitfield.

But Northwest’s 6-foot-5-inch sophomore Quaneisha McCurty and 6-3 junior Christy Robinson proved to be the difference against Logansville’s 5-10 Enisha Donley and Brittnee Hazel in a 55-40 Lady Bruins win Friday night in Tunnel Hill.

With the win, Northwest, Region 7-4A’s No. 1 seed, will advance to the second round and host Region 5-4A’s second-seeded Mays, which defeated Miller Grove 54-42 on Friday. The game will be played Tuesday at a time to be determined.

McCurty’s 16 points, six rebounds, three blocks and a steal led the way for the Lady Bruins (27-2) and Robinson added six points, five rebounds, two steals and a block.

Northwest made it a point to work the ball inside early and often, hoping that would lead to either Hazel or Donley getting into foul trouble. The plan worked as Hazel picked up two fouls in the first half and sat out all but three minutes of the third quarter after picking up her fourth.

After Hazel fouled McCurty for a second time in the first quarter, McCurty sent a clear message to the Loganville bench by curling her arm to flex her muscles on her way to the foul line.

“I just wanted to let them know we’re stronger than we look,” McCurty said. “We might be skinny, but we’re strong and we can play with the best of ‘em. We knew their posts were very foul-prone, so we just wanted to get the ball in there as much as we could so we could get them in foul trouble.”

Hazel’s foul woes forced Loganville (18-11) to heavily rely on its outside shooting, where they were a dismal 2-for-13 from the 3-point line in the first half, finishing the game just 6 of 24.

“We wanted to penetrate knowing they might collapse on us and kick it out if need be,” Donaldson said. “North-west was giving us the outside and our posts did kick it out, we just didn’t knock down shots.”

With foul problems and Loganville shooting poorly, Northwest built a 14-7 lead after one quarter with dead-eye Jordi Cook nailing her first two 3-point attempts.

With just over four seconds remaining in the half, Emily Trew, underneath the Loganville basket, threw a long inbound pass to Kayla Piorkowski, who drew three defenders near half court and passed it cross court to an open Baleigh Coley, who drilled a 25-foot bank shot at the buzzer to put the Lady Bruins up 33-21.

“I thought it was going to break the backboard or something,” said Coley, who with 10 points was Northwest’s only other double-digit scorer. “It got everyone pumped up and everyone was picking me up and hugging me. Everyone’s adrenaline was rushing, so it was pretty big.”

Northwest scored just six points — all by McCurty — in the third quarter and the Lady Devils made a 10-6 run, closing out the quarter on two 3s from Morgan Staffins and two inside shots from Donley to pull to within 42-31.

“I just told them at the beginning of the fourth quarter, before they went out, that they gained four points on us and we cannot allow that to happen again,” Lady Bruins coach Margaret Stockburger said.

The Lady Bruins took Stockburger’s words to heart, closing the game on a 13-9 run started by a Coley 3 and a Robinson turnaround shot in the post to push the lead to 14. Hazel’s steal and layup with four minutes left pulled Loganville to within 49-38, but moments later Northwest was in the bonus and melted the clock while making 4 of 8 free throws down the stretch.

Donley led Loganville with 12 points and Staffins added 11. Hazel finished with six points.

Coley added a game-high nine assists for Northwest.

Now the Lady Bruins will look to advance to the third round, something they haven’t done in four consecutive state tournament appearances before this season. In 2005 the second-round loss was to Mays.