SHS girls rout Abbeville 48-29

Published 12:30 am Friday, February 22, 2013

0222-sports

DOTHAN — Straughn’s game plan Thursday was simple.

Stop Abbeville’s Shyanne Peterman from penetrating the lane, force some outside shots and get rebounds.

The ninth-ranked Lady Tigers did all of this and a little bit more in a 48-29 Class 3A South Regional Tournament victory over the Lady Yellow Jackets at the Dothan Civic Center.

“I thought we started off strong,” SHS coach Scott Kinsaul said. “I was real pleased with the team. We executed our game plan just like we’ve been practicing the past few days.

“(Peterman) could get to the hole real easy and we really worked on stopping her penetration,” he said. “I thought we did a good job of making them make outside shots, and us getting the rebounds when they did miss.”

The Lady Tigers advance to play in the regional championship tomorrow at 3:40 p.m. against Opp. This win was the first regional victory for SHS since the 1997 season, when regional play began.

With Abbeville shooting only 17 percent from the field, the Lady Tigers (31-2) took advantage by boxing out under the bucket and getting key rebounds.

Straughn’s Katelyn Kinsaul found Emily Wood for an easy bucket at the beginning of the first period to take an early 2-0 lead.

Jacie Williamson later found Brittany Driver for a 4-0 lead in Straughn’s favor.

Wood later drained a 3-pointer, Taylor Wood made a free throw and Driver drained a pair with 3.8 seconds left in the first to give the Lady Tigers a 13-5 lead.

Straughn didn’t slow down from the start of the second period.

The Lady Tigers got off to a 5-0 run on a Kinsaul trey and Driver layup off of a Williamson pass. Williamson later got a jumper and SHS led 20-5

On a missed foul shot, Driver got one of her 14 rebounds and passed to Williamson for an assist to give the Lady Tigers a 22-5 lead.

With 4:44 left in the first half, Driver picked up her third foul of the game, but that didn’t deter her teammates.

The Lady Tigers went on to take a whopping 31-11 lead at halftime and outscored the Lady Jackets 10-4 in the third period.

Kinsaul said he reminded the girls that Abbeville wasn’t going to give up at the break.

“I just told them to take care of the basketball, take care of our possessions and run some time off the clock,” he said. “Get some rebounds and just get as much time off the clock as possible. We weren’t interested in scoring anymore than what we had to, and we did that.”

Abbeville managed to outscore Straughn 14-7 in the fourth period, but by that point, the Lady Tigers had already sealed their ticket to play in the regional title game.

“It’s really exciting,” Williamson said about getting the win.

Driver added that the girls were really pumped up for the game.

“We’ve been ready for this the whole season, knowing that it could happen,” Driver said. “We’ve been pushing forward and playing hard.”

Driver and Williamson led the Lady Tigers with double doubles.

Driver scored 15 points and had 14 rebounds, while Williamson chipped in 11 points and 10 rebounds.

Emily Woods added seven points and Katelyn scored five points.

On whether they could see Opp for a fifth time this season, Driver said it’s just good to be playing in the next round.

“We’re just excited to be playing in the next round,” she said. “We’re looking forward to state and that’s the goal. Whoever we play, we’ve got to go through them.”