With a date with Clinton in the championship game of the Four County Conference Tournament on the line, the Midway Lady Raiders travelled to Pender High School on Thursday to face off against nemesis East Bladen. East Bladen swept the two games in the regular season against Midway, but on Thursday, the Lady Raiders broke through and took home a 57-47 victory over the Lady Eagles, earning their spot against Clinton in the finals.
The first quarter ended with things shaping up much like the regular season games as East Bladen led 17-13 by the end of the period.
In the second quarter, Midway changed its defensive approach which proved to be affective. The Lady Raiders flipped the script and outscored the Lady Eagles 18-12 to take a 31-29 lead at the halftime break.
Midway continued to rely on strong defense throughout the second half as East Bladen was held to just 18-second half points. The Lady Raider offense did its job on their end of the court to help maintain even extend the lead.
Midway went on to win the game, 57-47.
“I’m proud of our effort tonight,” Raider head coach Allen McLamb commented.
“We came out and played them hard, played smart,”
McLamb credited the second quarter adjustments that were made for helping turn the game in the favor of Midway.
“We adjusted to the defense they were running and changed our own defense as well. Hats off to Kasey McLamb. She came off the bench and we put her on defense against arguably their star player and she did a fine job”
McLamb also noted that this was a total team effort, saying “Everyone did their job. They did what we asked them and everyone contributed.”
The Lady Raiders now have the tall order of containing Mikayla Bokyin and the Lady Dark Horses. Coach McLamb says his team approaches this game no different than any other.
“We’re just going to go down there and play basketball,” he concluded.
Game time at Pender High School is set for 6 p.m.
Leading the scoring for Midway was Leah Williams with 24 points and JJ Sankey with 15. Also contributing the final tally was Madee Royal with seven, Ayssa Wrench has five, and Hannah Lucas, Alexis Jackson, and Tatyana Soloman each added two points.
Sankey also had a solid defensive game as she came up with seven steals and three blocks.