Lady Phoenix make history, earning a spot in Elite Eight
The Sonoraville girls defeated Pace Academy in the Sweet 16 to advance further than any other squad in school history.
After the dust had settled from a physical, tumultuous clash in the second round of the AAA state playoffs, the Sonoraville girls made school history on Wednesday evening, becoming the first Lady Phoenix squad to advance to the Elite Eight by defeating Pace Academy 61-46.
Boosted by a raucous and deafening home crowd at The Furnace, the Lady Phoenix fed off the energy and jumped out to an early 10-2 lead. The fullcourt press deployed by Sonoraville created a number of early turnovers and provided easy baskets on the other end. However, in what would be one of the primary themes of the game, the talented Lady Knights would bounce back, slicing the Sonoraville lead back down to just four points at the end of the first quarter.
“We weren’t sure the (press) was going to be effective tonight, but it was early,” Sonoraville head coach Stephanie Caudell said. “But Alexa (Geary) is who makes our press go, so her being in four trouble will diminish how we are able to use it, but when she came back in, she got after it with the press and it gave them trouble. And our supporters give us such an advantage, and it means a lot when we can win at home.”
The scoring pace accelerated as the teams traded buckets in the second period. While the Lady Phoenix expanded its lead to 19-11, Pace Academy rallied to only trail 25-22 headed into the halftime locker rooms.
“Pace Academy is a seniorheavy bunch, and we knew they weren’t going down without a fight,” Caudell said. “We knew they were going to keep fighting, and we knew we had to keep our heads about us. And I think that’s what this group has gotten better at—keep on giving effort and keep the intensity level up.”
The third quarter was more of the same, with Sonoraville distancing itself by 10 points on the scoreboard, but the Lady Knights cut it back down to five at the buzzer to set up a dramatic fourth quarter.
The fourth quarter proved to be all Lady Phoenix, as the team once again established a 10-point lead midway through. This time, Sonoraville prevented a rally and built upon that lead until time expired thanks to a late surge from Maliyah Parks, who netted 10 of her game-high 28 points in the final eight minutes, and Alexa Geary, who dealt with foul trouble early but scored 14 points in the second half.
“If teams pressure us, the girls understand we need to play through Maliyah,” Caudell said. “If she’s one-on-one, she’s pretty hard to stop. If they have to help on her, that opens up things for our shooters, and that’s been our kind of our recipe to success these last few games.”
Also coming up big in the scoring column was Abby Chambers, who notched eight points and hit a few clutch free throws down the stretch, and Lindsay Bowman, who added seven points and knocked down some crucial three-pointers to propel the scoring early.
After the win, Caudell shared how special it is to make school history by reaching this round of the state playoffs for the first time.
PHOENIX,
“I don’t know if its even hit me yet, but I think this team has played well when they had something to play nights during the regular season, I think that motivated might not have been they wanted to be the first team in the Elite Eight. When they play motivated basketball, they are tough. And we’ve had some teams, that were some really good
teams come close, but this group is definitely special, and always will be to me.”
to keep making history when the team squares off against the winner of the Rutland/ Pierce County matchup at - erage of that game, pick up Calhoun Times.
The Calhoun boys’ season drew to a close on Wednesday in its second- round matchup against Cedar
Grove, dropping the away contest 68-51 against the highly-seeded squad.
It was a valiant effort from - mulated 15 points. Joining the floor general in scoring was senior Davis Allen, who compiled 11 points, Jaylan Harris, who added eight points, and finished with seven points.
Cedar Grove jumped out to an early lead, posting a 32-19 lead at the halfway its advantage to 51-37 heading into the fourth quarter, and held off the Calhoun comeback attempt.