Cats in a buzzer-beater

Published 11:47 pm Saturday, February 2, 2008

Caught in a tight game in Region 7-4A action at a top rival’s gym on Saturday night, Dalton boys basketball coach Mike Duffie decided to put the final moments in his player’s hands.

Kelly Phillips used his to guide the ball where the Catamounts needed it.

With less than a second remaining, Phillips hit a five-footer from just inside the lane and to the right of the basket to give the Catamounts a 55-53 win at Northwest Whitfield, the final spine-tingling play in what had been a wildly entertaining fourth quarter.

“I missed a lot of shots throughout the game,” Phillips said. “But I caught it and I felt confident, I knew it was coming soon.”

In the earlier girls game, Northwest’s Lady Bruins wrapped up a season sweep of Dalton via a 50-36 win.

In the boys game, Northwest took a 51-49 lead with 2:27 to play as Blake Gash — who scored a game-high 26 points — hit his fifth 3-pointer of the night, but Dalton got back-to-back baskets from David White and held a 53-51 margin with 28 seconds left.

The Bruins (14-9, 5-8) tied the game on Chris Queen’s soft shot from the lane with 13 seconds left, but Dalton took the ball down for the final go — and came out of a scramble smiling.

White’s finish on a drive to the basket was blocked by Queen, sending the ball out to the Cats’ Caz Cole to the left of the lane. A shot attempt by Cole, who collided with a Northwest player, tipped the ball toward Phillips, who sank his shot to set off a celebration on Dalton’s side.

“With 10 seconds or less to go in a game, and it’s tied and you’ve got the ball?” Duffie said. “Go. The worst thing I could do in that situation is overcoach … I would rather have them just take it and go. The worst thing that would have happened would have been overtime.”

Northwest held the lead for most of the first half, but Dalton used a slow but sure rally during the third quarter to enter the final period with the score knotted at 39. The Cats, who have often struggled with free throws this season, went 9-for-12 from the line during the third quarter.

The Cats (13-9, 9-4) took their first lead of the second half when Lemond Searels took a steal down the floor for a layup and a 41-39 edge with 7:26 to play.

That set the tone for the frantic fourth, during which Gash and White — who finished 20 points to lead the Cats — traded back-to-back-to-back-to-back 3-pointers in a span of about 45 seconds that ended with Dalton leading leading 49-45.

“Blake can show up big and do some big stuff,” Bruins coach Ryan Richards said. “He had three 3s in the fourth quarter and that brought us back and gave us a chance to win the game. I can’t say enough good things about Blake right now — he can really turn it on.”

Searels added 16 points for Dalton, while Shaquan Moore and Phillips each finished with six. For Northwest, Queen had 11 rebounds and seven points, while Dustin Tate added six points.

— Northwest girls 50, Dalton 36: Three weeks after the Lady Bruins needed a clutch shot to knock off Dalton, they almost made this meeting look easy.

Northwest (15-8, 11-2) used a 10-2 run at the end of the second quarter and a smooth start to the second half to swing momentum well in its favor on the way to the big win over the Lady Cats (19-5, 10-3), the team’s 10th straight victory since returning from the holiday break.

The Lady Bruins won 43-41 at Dalton on Jan. 11 when Emily Trew knocked down a jump shot from the free throw line with less than 10 seconds remaining in the game, but Northwest enjoyed a 17-point lead as the fourth quarter began this time and never saw the double-digit cushion threatened.

“I just think we did a much better job of playing defense this time around and doing the things that we ask them to do,” Lady Bruins coach Margaret Stockburger said. “Keep the ball out of the lane and make sure they got a hand in their shooters’ faces — they’ve got some girls that can shoot the 3s.”

The Lady Bruins never trailed, but they didn’t start building distance between themselves and their visitors until Caitie Trew launched the offensive outburst with a 3-pointer that bounced around the basket before falling in with 2:50 remaining in the second quarter. Dalton answered with a basket of its own, but Northwest took over from there with a putback basket by Caitie Trew, a short jumper from Baleigh Coley and a 3-pointer by Emily Trew.

Northwest scored the first five points of the third quarter as well — adding to a 26-16 halftime lead — on another 3-pointer by Caitie Trew and an inside basket from Christy Robinson that was set up by Callie Thomas.

“I think that set the tone,” Stockburger said. “That’s what we told them at halftime, this first four minutes of the third quarter’s a big key. We’ve got to go out and continue to build on the lead we had.”

Both teams played tough defense throughout — almost two minutes passed at the start of the game before either side registered points — but Northwest was persistent on offense, passing to set up better looks, and never showed any obvious frustration against the Lady Cats’ pressure.

Dalton, though, struggled to mount any offensive attack and wasn’t helped with several starters hampered by foul trouble — Liz Coffey and Lindsey Bramlett both fouled out late in the game and missed time earlier, along with Markeisha Washington, due to the strikes against them.

“We just couldn’t score,” Lady Cats coach Jeff McKinney said. “When you freeze in a situation like that, you’re not a very good ball team. We’re going to have play a lot better than that to do better in the region.”

Caitie Trew paced the Lady Bruins with 13 points and six steals, while Robinson added 10 points and seven rebounds and Jasmine Thornton and Bethany McArthur each finished with seven points.

Hannah Mayo led Dalton with 12 points, while Coffey added eight and Amanda Rector six. Washington grabbed nine rebounds.