Forest Trail girls upend nationally ranked Providence Day
By Tim Donelli CHARLOTTE OBSERVER
Providence Day suffered a rare home loss, a 48-39 defeat to the Forest Trail Academy Golden Knights (Kernersville, NC) in the final game of the Chargers’ Martin Luther King Jr. Showcase Basketball Tournament which they hosted Monday. The loss was just Providence Day’s second in 18 games this season.
Many things went wrong for the Chargers Monday night, but getting off to a fast start was not one of them. Senior Erin Whalen (Vanderbilt recruit) and junior Janelle Bailey staked Providence Day to a 12-1 start before things began to slowly unravel.”
“That makes the final result even more discouraging,” said a subdued Chargers’ coach Josh Springer when discussing his team’s near perfect start. Forest Trail is a first-year program but is loaded with plenty of Division 1 college talent.
“We felt like we had a good game plan and we knew it would take a valiant defensive and rebounding effort to stay in the game, and we did that early,” said Springer. “A couple of their three-point threats hurt us late.”
Trailing by four points at the end of the third quarter, the Golden Knights outscored Providence Day 19-6 in the fourth quarter. Three 3-pointers by Forest Trail accounted for nine of their 15 fourth-quarter points, including a pair by Timber Tate. For the game, Lucky Rudd and Tate each scored 14 for the Golden Knights while Bairesha Gill chipped in with nine points.
Another big factor was the reduced minutes for Chargers Kennedy Boyd, Tori Powell and Bailey as all three got into early foul trouble. Powell and Bailey fouled out. Whalen led Providence Day and all scorers with 19 points with Bailey adding ten for the Chargers.
Trying to turn the momentum around, Forest Trail launched a full-court press in the middle of the second quarter and kept it up the rest of the game. “We definitely struggled with that which is kind of a surprise because we’ve been working really hard doing the press breakers in practice,” said Whalen. “We’re going to keep working on that in preparing ourselves for the state tournament.”
THREE WHO MATTERED:
Erin Whalen: Providence Day forward led all scorers with 19 points while helping the Chargers off to a fast start with ten first-quarter points.
Timber Tate: Forest Trail forward had three 3-pointers in the second half and two in fourth quarter, finishing with a team-high 14 points.
Lucky Rudd: Golden Knights point guard had ten fourth-quarter points and tied Tate as Forest Trail’s leading scorer with 14.
THEY SAID IT
“We just had to calm down. In big games kids have a tendency to get excited and we weren’t covering. We had a game plan but we had a couple of people forget their assignments.” Forest Trail coach Delaney Rudd on his team overcoming a 12-1 first-quarter deficit.
RECORDS: Forest Trail (14-4), Providence Day (16-2, 2-0)
WHAT’S NEXT: Providence Day plays Tuesday at Country Day at 6:00 p.m.
FOREST TRAIL 7 11 11 19 - 48
PROVIDENCE DAY 14 9 10 6 - 39
FOREST TRAIL: Timber Tate 14, Luck Rudd 14, Gill 9, Nunn 4, Church 3, Wentz 3, Matias 1.
PROVIDENCE DAY: Erin Whalen 19, Janelle Bailey 10, Boyd 5, C. Ives 3, Powell 2.
OTHER TOURNAMENT SCORES
Carolina Day 65 Collegiate Gray (West Columbia, SC) 38
Davidson Day 70, Bishop McGuinness (Kernersville, NC) 34
Wesleyan Christian Academy 56, Northwood Academy (Charleston, SC) 49
Rabun Gap 58, Northside Christian 47
By Tim Donelli CHARLOTTE OBSERVER
Providence Day suffered a rare home loss, a 48-39 defeat to the Forest Trail Academy Golden Knights (Kernersville, NC) in the final game of the Chargers’ Martin Luther King Jr. Showcase Basketball Tournament which they hosted Monday. The loss was just Providence Day’s second in 18 games this season.
Many things went wrong for the Chargers Monday night, but getting off to a fast start was not one of them. Senior Erin Whalen (Vanderbilt recruit) and junior Janelle Bailey staked Providence Day to a 12-1 start before things began to slowly unravel.”
“That makes the final result even more discouraging,” said a subdued Chargers’ coach Josh Springer when discussing his team’s near perfect start. Forest Trail is a first-year program but is loaded with plenty of Division 1 college talent.
“We felt like we had a good game plan and we knew it would take a valiant defensive and rebounding effort to stay in the game, and we did that early,” said Springer. “A couple of their three-point threats hurt us late.”
Trailing by four points at the end of the third quarter, the Golden Knights outscored Providence Day 19-6 in the fourth quarter. Three 3-pointers by Forest Trail accounted for nine of their 15 fourth-quarter points, including a pair by Timber Tate. For the game, Lucky Rudd and Tate each scored 14 for the Golden Knights while Bairesha Gill chipped in with nine points.
Another big factor was the reduced minutes for Chargers Kennedy Boyd, Tori Powell and Bailey as all three got into early foul trouble. Powell and Bailey fouled out. Whalen led Providence Day and all scorers with 19 points with Bailey adding ten for the Chargers.
Trying to turn the momentum around, Forest Trail launched a full-court press in the middle of the second quarter and kept it up the rest of the game. “We definitely struggled with that which is kind of a surprise because we’ve been working really hard doing the press breakers in practice,” said Whalen. “We’re going to keep working on that in preparing ourselves for the state tournament.”
THREE WHO MATTERED:
Erin Whalen: Providence Day forward led all scorers with 19 points while helping the Chargers off to a fast start with ten first-quarter points.
Timber Tate: Forest Trail forward had three 3-pointers in the second half and two in fourth quarter, finishing with a team-high 14 points.
Lucky Rudd: Golden Knights point guard had ten fourth-quarter points and tied Tate as Forest Trail’s leading scorer with 14.
THEY SAID IT
“We just had to calm down. In big games kids have a tendency to get excited and we weren’t covering. We had a game plan but we had a couple of people forget their assignments.” Forest Trail coach Delaney Rudd on his team overcoming a 12-1 first-quarter deficit.
RECORDS: Forest Trail (14-4), Providence Day (16-2, 2-0)
WHAT’S NEXT: Providence Day plays Tuesday at Country Day at 6:00 p.m.
FOREST TRAIL 7 11 11 19 - 48
PROVIDENCE DAY 14 9 10 6 - 39
FOREST TRAIL: Timber Tate 14, Luck Rudd 14, Gill 9, Nunn 4, Church 3, Wentz 3, Matias 1.
PROVIDENCE DAY: Erin Whalen 19, Janelle Bailey 10, Boyd 5, C. Ives 3, Powell 2.
OTHER TOURNAMENT SCORES
Carolina Day 65 Collegiate Gray (West Columbia, SC) 38
Davidson Day 70, Bishop McGuinness (Kernersville, NC) 34
Wesleyan Christian Academy 56, Northwood Academy (Charleston, SC) 49
Rabun Gap 58, Northside Christian 47
