Watson Chapel girls slip past White Hall
A cross-county rivalry matchup went down to the wire Tuesday night with the road team pulling away in the final moments.
The Watson Chapel girls’ basketball team defeated White Hall 48-44 on the road in a tight nonconference battle.
Watson Chapel (2-2) trailed 39-36 early in the fourth quarter but fought back to take a 40-39 lead.
White Hall (2-2) retook the lead when Laila Adams made a 3-pointer to make it 43-42, but the Lady Wildcats finished the game on a 6-1 run to earn the road win.
Watson Chapel coach Leslie Henderson said it was a physical game.
“I felt like they got after us, for sure,” Henderson said. “Going in at halftime, I felt like we had way too many turnovers, and we probably still did in the second half, but it’s a fun game. That’s the kind of game it should be with each other.”
White Hall’s Kenedi Bowman scored a game-high 15 points, followed by Khamiyah Drumgoole with 9.
Maranda Emerson led Watson Chapel with 13 points. Kha’leyce Cooper scored 12, and Christian Lovett scored 11.
After Adams’ 3-pointer, Cooper answered immediately on the other end to give Watson Chapel a 44-43 lead. The Lady Wildcats missed four free throws as they tried to put the game away before Emerson launched a great pass down the floor to Cooper, who laid it in to make it a 3-point game.
White Hall drew a 3-point shooting foul with 2.3 seconds left and could have tied it from the line but missed two of the three shots. Emerson drew a foul on the rebound and sank both free throws on the other end to ice it.
Emerson said the Lady Wildcats won by playing together.
“We had to calm ourselves down a lot to win the game,” Emerson said. “Just put trust in our teammates, actually, is all we had to do.”
Watson Chapel led 13-10 after the first quarter thanks to a late 7-3 run, but White Hall dominated the second. Macie Lambert gave the Lady Bulldogs the lead with a 3-pointer, then added another bucket to make it 19-15. White Hall led 25-18 at halftime thanks to a late run by Bowman and Kynnedi Barnett.
White Hall coach Dustin Powell said the Lady Bulldogs built their halftime lead with good defense.
“We were putting a lot of pressure on their guards at the top, and they couldn’t get it inside,” Powell said. “In the second half, we didn’t have as much pressure on the ball, and they were able to get to the high post easier, which broke down our defense.”
The Lady Wildcats came out of the locker room and went on a 12-1 run to retake the lead early in the third, 3026. The teams traded the lead the rest of the quarter, with Bowman beating the buzzer from close range to put the Lady Bulldogs up 1 point entering the fourth.
Blair Weston hit two early free throws in the fourth to extend White Hall’s lead before Watson Chapel took over to finish the game.