A pair of free throws by sophomore guard Hadley Joiner with 5.9 seconds remaining gave the Lady Eagles a 44-43 win and the lead in 25-2A with two games left.
Led by guard Nick Seawood and center Chase Stuckey, the Eagles used strong second and third quarters to knock off 11th-ranked Academy 56-47 and move within a game of the 25-2A lead.
GIRLS
Salado (22-8 overall, 10-1 in 25-2A) controls its destiny with only a game at Rogers remaining. A win next Tuesday would give the Lady Eagles their second consecutive district title.
The Lady Bumblebees (20-7, 8-2), who handed the Lady Eagles their only district loss, need wins in their final two games against Rogers and Florence and also a Salado loss to tie for the 25-2A crown.
“(This) definitely puts us in the driver’s seat,” Salado coach Randy Henderson said.
The Lady Eagles took control with a 13-0 run that spanned nearly four minutes of the first and second quarters. Three consecutive baskets by Joiner, who scored a team-high 16 points, at the end of that stretch gave Salado a 23-13 lead with 5:50 left in the half.
But behind guard Cortney Poncik’s game-high 18 points, the Lady Bees slowly chipped into the deficit. Poncik gave Academy its first lead since midway through the first quarter by hitting a 3-pointer and then a layup with 2:05 remaining for a 41-40 advantage.
“She did a good job of taking good shots when she had them,” Lady Bees coach Lee Bender said. “She ran the show for us. She’s supposed to do that.”
A layup by Taylor Robinson gave Academy the lead again at 43-42 with 19.8 seconds, but the Lady Bees were called for a 5-second violation while trying to inbound the ball on their next possession. Joiner then was fouled on the perimeter, setting up her winning free throws.
“I was trying to call timeout, but (an official) couldn’t hear me,” Bender said. “It’s a loud gym; there’s nothing you can do about it.”
Joiner, who entered the game shooting 84.4 percent from the free throw line, made both attempts in the 1-and-1 situation for the lead before Poncik missed a deep 3 at the final buzzer.
BOYS
The Eagles (20-9, 7-2) labled this one a must-win. Not because Academy (20-5, 7-1) entered the game unbeaten in 25-2A, but because the Bumblebees stood in the way of a district title.
“Our goal at the outset of the season was a district championship,” Eagles coach Kenny Mann said. “We had to win this to have a chance at that goal.”
The Eagles moved closer to that goal thanks to strong second and third quarters, outscoring the Bees 37-11. After trailing 16-7 at the end of the first quarter, Salado led 44-27 entering the fourth.
Salado got key production in that stretch from guards Nick Seawood (13 points) and Jerod Lutz (eight). Seawood finished with a game-high 16 points and Lutz had 10.
The Eagles, who shot 56 percent from the field, did much of their damage simply by attacking the Bees’ defense and feeding the ball to the 6-7, 275-pound Stuckey (13 points) in the paint.
“He’s hard to stop,” Mann said. “I thought they had a good scheme against him, but it’s not easy to do.”
Academy coach Ed Glendening said that after the Bees led by nine at the end of the first quarter, they simply got lethargic.
“You can have a letdown in the second quarter and still have half a game to play,” he said. “But you can’t have a letdown in the third like we had.”
Academy, which got a team-high 10 points from guard Kyler Kelton, got back into the game by forcing 11 fourth-quarter turnovers. A lead that ballooned to as many as 18 in the third was cut to six with 1:46 left. But Academy struggled to connect the rest of the way and saw its seven-game district winning streak end.
“We found ourselves in the fourth,” Glendening said. “We found heart.”
rschneider@temple-telegram.com
