Leggett girls basketball established a double-digit lead at the half, but it would not be enough to hold off Goodrich in a 51-47 overtime win for the Lady Hornets on the south side of Polk County Friday.
Leggett came out firing in the first quarter, hitting on four 3-pointers. Lady Pirate Na’llah Jordan connected on three from behind the arc, starting her night quickly. After the first period, Leggett led 14-9.
Goodrich struggled on offense. They used size in the first quarter to put in a few from close range, but were limited to four points in the second quarter. By the half, the Lady Pirate lead had swelled to 27-13.
Yet, the Lady Hornets weren’t done. They bested their first-half output in the third quarter, putting 18 on the board. A press helped, and Aaliyah Wright had seven points in the period. To start the fourth quarter, Goodrich had momentum and was down by three.
“They relaxed and laid back; they did not come out and play ball,” Leggett coach Terri Barlow said of the second half. “Nothing was going our way and the defense wasn't going our way on the press. I am missing my main defensive player, who has been out sick. I still have to have somebody step up and take care of it.”
Leggett seemed to go away from the outside shooting that had been so successful in the first half.
“We did (stop shooting outside) and we did not share the ball,” Barlow said. “We kind of went back to, ‘I've got the ball and I don't have enough points, I'm going to score.’ We did that instead of sharing the ball and getting it to the open person. A couple of passes that we did throw to the open person, they were trying to shoot it before they could catch it.”
With 6:20 to go in the fourth, Goodrich took a 35-34 lead. It set up a close finish to regulation.
Bianca Perkins hit a 3-pointer to go up by one at 43-42. Aaliyah Wright countered on the other end, getting a rebound and putback to put the Hornets back up.
After Tamera Henderson connected on a field goal to give Leggett another one-point lead, the Lady Pirates were hit with a technical foul. Goodrich made just one of four free throws and could not score with 13 seconds to go, sending the game to overtime.
The Goodrich defense stifled Leggett in the four-minute overtime, allowing just one bucket. Meanwhile, Natalie Norris scored all four of her points Friday in the extra period, and Arly Balbuena added two to her total.
“This is the first time since the season started that they actually looked like and played like a basketball team,” Goodrich coach Pinellafie Johnson said. “We had already played them before, and they beat us 67-12 in the tournament. I knew who the scorers were, so we decided to go to a box-and-one (defense). If that didn't work, we were going to go to a triangle-and-two.”
Johnson said once Jordan began hitting 3-pointers, they decided to play man defense on three players, while putting two in a zone.
For the night, Wright led all scores with 22 points, Balbuena had 14 and Bra’Niyah Wyatt seven. For the Lady Pirates, Henderson had 16, Jordan 15 and Perkins 10.
Leggett is now in third place in the district with a 5-3 record. Brookeland is in first place, while Chester sits in second. Goodrich is now 4-3, just behind Leggett, but the win Friday certainly helps the Lady Hornets’ chances to begin climbing.
“I was very pleased with the defense,” Johnson said. “We were taking two steps forward and five steps backward offensively. We would play good defense and then throw the ball away on offense. We missed so many free throws, so many layups, so many short baskets, and they realize that too. They really didn't think they could do it. I told them, ‘We're not going to worry about what that score was in the tournament, that was a practice game. This is the real thing here.’ I was real pleased with the effort.”
Goodrich will next host the district’s top performers in Brookeland, while Leggett returns home for Burkeville.