Local acts are regional hit

Published 12:57 am Sunday, February 20, 2011

In the last seconds of Dalton’s 54-51 win over Cartersville in the Region 7-3A girls championship Saturday night, you could almost sense a sigh of relief. After so many blowouts and sub-filled second halves this season, many Dalton fans had wondered: How would their Lady Catamounts fare when faced with a real challenge?

How would they fare when faced with an opponent that didn’t care that they had been beaten by the Lady Cats before? How would they fare when they had to play four quarters of basketball?

They got the answer to some of those questions and a little more.

The Lady Cats (28-0), ranked No. 2 in the GaPrepCountry.com Class 3A coaches poll, overcame a curious case of the jitters in the title game at home. They won despite a horrendous shooting effort in a game not decided until the final seconds.

“We struggled shooting the basketball, but that is a lot of credit to the Cartersville defense,” Dalton coach Jeff McKinney said. “They came out with a great plan and we just didn’t shoot the ball well. We shot so bad that when it left the hand, you knew it wasn’t even close.”

It was the fourth region championship under McKinney, but the first since 2007. And after a pair of blowouts to reach the title game, Dalton had to deal with a much tighter situation Saturday.

Dalton was 3 of 21 shooting in the first quarter and only marginally better in the second quarter, hitting 5 of 21 for a 16-percent shooting effort in the first half. Using a double- and sometimes triple-team on senior Quaneisha McCurty in the post, Cartersville (17-11) dared Dalton to hit from the perimeter, but the shots weren’t falling. With that 3-2 zone working, Cartersville could wait until Dalton finally started hitting.

“I felt like we had some good matchups defensively and needed to take advantage of them,” Cartersville coach Donna Enis said. “We mainly wanted to make them beat us with their offense and not let them score a lot of points in transition.”

The craziest part of those shooting percentages is that the Lady Cats still had a one-point lead at the break.

“I have no idea how we were up by one point at the half,” McKinney said.

Mainly it was from free-throw shooting, the Lady Cats’ savior in the first half, though it almost doomed them in the second, when they missed their last four shots at the line while trying to seal the victory.

“It was just jitters more than anything else,” McCurty said. “It was a close game the entire night, and I was just glad that we responded.”

McCurty led all scorers with 18 points and, along with fellow senior teammate Amanda Rector, was named to the all-tournament team.

They were joined on the team by Allatoona’s Alexis Ezell, Pickens’ Jamie Waterman and Cartersville freshman Kaelyn Irby, who scored 17 points against Dalton and during this tournament put a shiver through most of the region’s coaches who will have to face her the next three years.

“The Irby girl is great, but the main thing for us is that you can’t win against a good team being outrebounded and giving up so many offensive rebounds,” McKinney said. “We are just happy to get the win.”

In the second half, the game was back-and-forth, with Dalton still struggling from outside and Cartersville having success scoring in transition and by finding holes in the Lady Cats’ defense. Dalton had a 43-41 lead at the end of the third quarter, but Cartersville scored the first three points of the fourth to regain the lead. Dalton didn’t go ahead for good until Maddie Howell hit a bucket and McCurty connected on a pair of free throws to lead 50-46 with 2:24 to play.

“That shot by Maddie gave us a  boost,” McCurty said. “We responded. We hadn’t been hitting our shots all night, but that gave us the confidence we needed at the end.”

And it will keep the Lady Cats at home as long as they keep winning. They will play host to Region 5-3A No. 4 seed Washington at 7 p.m. Friday. Dalton would also host in the second round, and quarterfinal games will be played just a short drive from the Cats Den at the Northwest Georgia Trade and Convention Center.

• Allatoona 40, Pickens 24: Alexis Ezel finished with 15 points and Kaitlin Chumley added 11 as the Lady Buccaneers rolled to the easy win and the region’s No. 3 seed. Jamie Waterman was the lone Dragonette in double figures with 10.