The Coastal Rivers Conference was in full swing Thursday afternoon as teams took to the court at Harrells Christian Academy, battling for a spot in the Championship Games.
In the girls matchup featuring the Lady Crusaders and Coastal Christian, offense wasn’t exactly on full display in this low scoring affair. In a game where points weren’t easy to come by, the Lady Centurions got their offense clicking in the second half to pull away with the 39-22 win.
With a game total of 22 points for Harrells, the Lady Crusaders achieved nearly half of that total in the first quarter alone.
Coastal Christian opened up the contest with a pair of free throws, which Harrells countered with a free throw of their own to make it 2-1. A made three pointer by the Lady Centurions pushed the tally to 5-1 before Isabella Rumbold countered with a Harrells three pointer to make it 5-4. Then, Lekea Boney put up a soft jumper that gave the Lady Crusaders the 6-5 lead. The teams swapped scores the remainder of the first period as the conclusion brought about a 10-9 lead for Coastal.
To say that scoring drastically slowed after the first quarter would be an understatement.
The Lady Centurions mustered up seven points to just six for the Lady Crusaders but credit does go to Coastal in the fact that they never surrendered the lead. At the conclusion of the first half, Harrells was trailing 17-15.
The second half was a completely different story — at least, for the Lady Centurions. The third quarter was less than stellar for Harrells as they watched a two-point deficit swell to double-digits. The Lady Crusaders were held to just two points in the third quarter. Coastal Christian didn’t overwhelmingly perform any better, but it was an 8-2 performance that pushed the margin to 25-17 at the end of the third.
Then in fourth, it was downhill from there for Harrells as the Lady Centurions sprinted away, outscoring the Lady Crusaders 14-5 in the final frame to grab the 39-22 win
For Harrells, Rumbold led the scoring effort with eight points, followed by Boney with six. Zania Jones recorded five points, followed by Casey Johnson with two, and Zaria Washington with one.
With the loss, the Lady Crusaders fall to 7-14 overall. The NCISAA Tournament is set to begin Feb. 12, but, unfortunately, Harrells did not get it, thus the Lady Crusaders’ season has ended.