Wesleyan’s girls roll into state seminals
BY MICHAEL LINDSAY ENTERPRISE SPORTS WRITER
GH POINT — Wesleyan Christian con-tinued its late-season push right into the state semifi nals.In a rematch of last year’s state champion-ship, the second-seeded Trojans scored 15 of the game’s first 16 points, held a double-digit lead the rest of the game and cruised past seventh-seeded Rabun Gap 59-44 during the quarterfinals of the NCISAA 4A girls basketball play-offs Saturday at Wesleyan.“We told our kids all week that we had to win the first quarter,” Wesleyan coach Matt McCarthy said. “We wanted to set the tone. We’ve been practicing our first four or five possessions all week long, and we executed them perfectly.
“Kudos to the practice squad that came in and kudos to our second team. I just told our second team that they prepared us for that first quarter, which is what gave us our big lead early.”Iycez Adams scored 17 points — going 11 of 13 from the foul line, including 10 of 11 in the fourth quarter — to lead the Trojans (11-12), the defending 3A state champions who will be making their third straight trip to the final four after reaching the state title game the last two years.Jordan Hardin added 13 points, including eight in the first quarter, followed by Wake Forest recruit Anaia Hoard with 11 points and eighth-grader Sarah Chrapliwy with nine points as Wesleyan took control early, limit-ing the Eagles to just one free throw during the fi rst 4 1-2 minutes of the game.“It was great,” said Adams, a sophomore for-ward.
“We all enjoyed it — it was just a rush. We watched a lot of game film this week, and we practiced hard – like two hours every day. We were locked in from the start.”
The Trojans scored on seven of their first nine possessions — high-lighted by three scores by Hardin in four trips up the court — while Rabun Gap went 0 for 5 with three turnovers in its first eight possessions as Wesleyan led 15-1 with 3:35 left in the first and held a 15-5 advantage at the end of one quarter.
“I said it before the game: Jordan, she’s our clutch player,” McCarthy said. “She did the same thing last week against Greensboro Day, which is a ver y good basketball team. She hit two 3s in the first quarter.“And when Jordan can hit 3s, then we’re going to win, because now we have that third scorer. And we made free throws – we were 17 of 22 from the free-throw line. We’ve been shooting the ball a lot in practice and that paid off.”
The Trojans, who were without starter Emma Gonzalez (who is also a standout volleyball player and had another commitment), pushed their lead to 16 in the second, led 28-17 at halftime and extended their advantage to as large as 17 in the third. The Eagles trimmed their advantage to 10 three times during a three-minute span in the fourth and had chances to get back within single digits.But Wesleyan got enough scoring down the stretch to stem the tide. After Rabun Gap got back within 10 for the final time with 3:40 left in the game, the Trojans made 9 of 10 free throws to push their lead out to 16 with with 1:16 left in the game and played a number of substitutes during the final minutes.
“They were down 10,” Adams said, “so we wanted to stretch it out more to get some playing time for some of our players who don’t get as much playing time. ... It was great. We were loving it. There was a lot of energy — even more in the locker room than there was out there.”
Derin Akdeniz scored 14 points while Ramani Lewis and Claudia Lopez each added 12 points to lead the Eagles (12-13), who had reached the semifinals the previous eight seasons. Wesleyan, which has won eight of its last 10 games, will face third-seeded Ravenscroft (19-7) on Friday at 6:30 p.m. at Ravenscroft.The winner will face either top-seeded North Raleigh Christian or fifth-seeded Providence Day in the championship game Saturday at 4 p.m. at Ravenscroft.
“A lot of times it’s a long season and you’re ready for the season to end, but we’re glad it’s a long season,” McCarthy said with a laugh. “We started 1-7 and have gone 8-2 in our last 10 games. Once we got some experience and we got our full starting f ve, we’ve done OK.“We’re glad we get to play another game. It seems like we’re peak-ing at the right time, and we’re just going to ride that wave and see how far it takes us. ... Defense travels and defense wins championships. So, that’s the message we’re going to be preaching all week – defense, defense, defense.“And play with HEART. I say it ever y year: We just can’t gauge our success on wins and losses. If we do that, then we’ve had a terrible year — we’re .500. But we’re in the final four, and we gauge our success on humility, energy, attitude, responsibility and trust. If we go 5 for 5 on that, then they know I’m happy.”
BY MICHAEL LINDSAY ENTERPRISE SPORTS WRITER
GH POINT — Wesleyan Christian con-tinued its late-season push right into the state semifi nals.In a rematch of last year’s state champion-ship, the second-seeded Trojans scored 15 of the game’s first 16 points, held a double-digit lead the rest of the game and cruised past seventh-seeded Rabun Gap 59-44 during the quarterfinals of the NCISAA 4A girls basketball play-offs Saturday at Wesleyan.“We told our kids all week that we had to win the first quarter,” Wesleyan coach Matt McCarthy said. “We wanted to set the tone. We’ve been practicing our first four or five possessions all week long, and we executed them perfectly.
“Kudos to the practice squad that came in and kudos to our second team. I just told our second team that they prepared us for that first quarter, which is what gave us our big lead early.”Iycez Adams scored 17 points — going 11 of 13 from the foul line, including 10 of 11 in the fourth quarter — to lead the Trojans (11-12), the defending 3A state champions who will be making their third straight trip to the final four after reaching the state title game the last two years.Jordan Hardin added 13 points, including eight in the first quarter, followed by Wake Forest recruit Anaia Hoard with 11 points and eighth-grader Sarah Chrapliwy with nine points as Wesleyan took control early, limit-ing the Eagles to just one free throw during the fi rst 4 1-2 minutes of the game.“It was great,” said Adams, a sophomore for-ward.
“We all enjoyed it — it was just a rush. We watched a lot of game film this week, and we practiced hard – like two hours every day. We were locked in from the start.”
The Trojans scored on seven of their first nine possessions — high-lighted by three scores by Hardin in four trips up the court — while Rabun Gap went 0 for 5 with three turnovers in its first eight possessions as Wesleyan led 15-1 with 3:35 left in the first and held a 15-5 advantage at the end of one quarter.
“I said it before the game: Jordan, she’s our clutch player,” McCarthy said. “She did the same thing last week against Greensboro Day, which is a ver y good basketball team. She hit two 3s in the first quarter.“And when Jordan can hit 3s, then we’re going to win, because now we have that third scorer. And we made free throws – we were 17 of 22 from the free-throw line. We’ve been shooting the ball a lot in practice and that paid off.”
The Trojans, who were without starter Emma Gonzalez (who is also a standout volleyball player and had another commitment), pushed their lead to 16 in the second, led 28-17 at halftime and extended their advantage to as large as 17 in the third. The Eagles trimmed their advantage to 10 three times during a three-minute span in the fourth and had chances to get back within single digits.But Wesleyan got enough scoring down the stretch to stem the tide. After Rabun Gap got back within 10 for the final time with 3:40 left in the game, the Trojans made 9 of 10 free throws to push their lead out to 16 with with 1:16 left in the game and played a number of substitutes during the final minutes.
“They were down 10,” Adams said, “so we wanted to stretch it out more to get some playing time for some of our players who don’t get as much playing time. ... It was great. We were loving it. There was a lot of energy — even more in the locker room than there was out there.”
Derin Akdeniz scored 14 points while Ramani Lewis and Claudia Lopez each added 12 points to lead the Eagles (12-13), who had reached the semifinals the previous eight seasons. Wesleyan, which has won eight of its last 10 games, will face third-seeded Ravenscroft (19-7) on Friday at 6:30 p.m. at Ravenscroft.The winner will face either top-seeded North Raleigh Christian or fifth-seeded Providence Day in the championship game Saturday at 4 p.m. at Ravenscroft.
“A lot of times it’s a long season and you’re ready for the season to end, but we’re glad it’s a long season,” McCarthy said with a laugh. “We started 1-7 and have gone 8-2 in our last 10 games. Once we got some experience and we got our full starting f ve, we’ve done OK.“We’re glad we get to play another game. It seems like we’re peak-ing at the right time, and we’re just going to ride that wave and see how far it takes us. ... Defense travels and defense wins championships. So, that’s the message we’re going to be preaching all week – defense, defense, defense.“And play with HEART. I say it ever y year: We just can’t gauge our success on wins and losses. If we do that, then we’ve had a terrible year — we’re .500. But we’re in the final four, and we gauge our success on humility, energy, attitude, responsibility and trust. If we go 5 for 5 on that, then they know I’m happy.”
