Top-ranked Carver ends Heritage’s run
The Lady Tigers of CarverColumbus came to Boynton this past Wednesday night sporting an unblemish record behind a highscoring offense (80.6 points per game) and an in-your-face pressure defense that had held opponents just over 37 points per game this season.
And they were as good as advertised.
Carver stormed out to a 20-7 lead after the first quarter and never look back as they advanced to the Class 4A state Final Four for a third consecutive season with a 71-43 victory over the Heritage Lady Generals.
From the game’s outset, Carver’s height advantage and speed on defense gave the Lady Generals trouble. A swarming, full-court press forced several turnovers and came up with several steals, while the size advantage — led by 6-foot-3 junior center Olivia Cochran — clogged up the lane and forced Heritage to shoot more perimeter shots.
Although the Lady Generals connected on six 3-pointers in the game, four came in the second half after Carver had already established a comfortable lead.
“We knew they were going to be good, but their relentless pressure was just incredible,” Heritage head coach Eddie Bryant said.”There were so many double-teams and traps coming from everywhere on the court. They would have two or three people around the ball and then we couldn’t throw it over them because they’re so long. At some point, the pressure just wears you down and you start making mental mistakes.”
After the teams exchanged baskets in the first 30 seconds of the game, Carver would reel off 11 straight points over the next 4:45 before a Reagan Armour put-back with 2:50 to go in the first quarter finally ended the drought.
The Lady Tigers led 24-11 with 6:44 left before halftime when Cochran was relegated to the bench with her second personal foul. However, Heritage was only able to shave three points off the lead before Cochran came back into the game four minutes later. Carver would go on to end the half on an 8-3 run and take a 33-18 lead into the locker room.
After struggling from the field in the first half, Heritage begin to connect on more shots in the third quar- ter, but was not able to string enough baskets together to make a run. A put-back by Cochran with just over two minutes left in the quarter would push the Lady Tigers’ lead out to 20 and the visitors would take a 53-32 lead into the final eight minutes.
Cochran, who scored 14 of her 21 points in the second half, would help the Lady Tigers would extend their lead to 30 points in the first three minutes of the final period. Carver’s lead was 26 points with 1:50 to play when both teams finally pulled their starters.
“We got it down to 10 (points) there in the second quarter and missed a 3-pointer that would have cut their lead down to seven,” Bryant said. “But (Cochran) and (Kionna Gaines) are both just so dadgum good. (Cochran) is the sixth-rated post player in the country in the junior class (by ESPN) and (Gaines) is just long. (Gaines) hit a couple of 3-pointers (in the first quarter) and kind of extended our defense just a little bit.”
Ja’nya Love-Hill added 16 points for Carver (30-0). Gaines had 13 points, including nine in the first period, while guard Malasia Howard added 11.