ASHBURN —
The Americus-Sumter Lady Panthers had their eyes set on the prize as they prepared to take on the AAAAAA Coffee Lady Trojans on Saturday for the Turner County Tournament Title. After a back-and-fourth contest, the Lady Panthers came up just short in their pursuit, but still finished the tournament with an impressive 2-1 record and a runner-up trophy.
The Lady Panthers began their tournament on a rather interesting note when a time mix up caused their opponent to show up very late for the game, resulting in a forfeit and an Americus-Sumter win. The Lady Panthers took advantage of their good fortune by taking down the host team, Turner County, in their second game to earn a date with Coffee in the Championship game.
Americus-Sumter started a bit slow in the first period of their opening contest on offense, surrendering 11 points to the Lady Rebels while only scoring seven points of their own. Over the next two periods, however, the Lady Panthers would catch fire and Americus-Sumter would take a commanding 40-29 into the final period.
Turner County would put up a fight in the fourth period by outscoring the Lady Panthers 23-18, but it would not be enough to claim the lead as Americus-Sumter held off the Lady Rebels to claim the 58-52 victory.
Sophomore De’Kayla Blackshear had a tremendous game for the Lady Panthers in the victory with a team-high 17 points. Kahler Fletcher followed with 16 points, and Kayla Bowens finished with 10 points in the win.
The win propelled Americus-Sumter to the championship game, but unfortunately the Lady Panthers would be outscored by the much larger AAAAAA Coffee Lady Trojans.
Americus-Sumter started the game well, and by the end of the first period they claimed a 12-8 lead over the Lady Trojans. Coffee reversed that trend in the second period to take the period 13-8 and claim a narrow 21-20 halftime lead.
The third period would be detrimental for the Lady Panthers as they gave up 14 points while only scoring six to fall behind 35-26 going into the final quarter. Despite a tough battle, Americus-Sumter would be outscored 24-22 in the final period as they dropped the championship game 59-48 and claimed the Turner County Tournament Runner-up Title.
One of the biggest problems for the Lady Panthers in the tournament was their free throw shooting. Americus-Sumter only shot 14-31 from the charity stripe, or 45 percent, which Lady Panther head coach Evelyn Wright said made all the difference in the game. “We missed almost all of our free throws, and we just didn’t convert when they fouled and sent us to the line,” said Wright. “We have to work on trying to become consistent now.”
Despite the poor day from the line, several Lady Panthers had a great game shooting the ball. Fletcher led the team with 13 points, followed by A’Dasjah Mercer with nine and Bowens and Blackshear with seven points each.
After taking second place, Americus-Sumter will take some time off to enjoy the break before returning to action this Saturday in Americus. The Lady Panthers will welcome the Warner Robins Lady Demons to town for a non-region battle at 6 p.m. before Americus-Sumter enters the second portion of their Region 1-AAAA schedule starting next week.
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Americus-Sumter’s Kahler Fletcher had 13 points and 16 points in her team’s two games last week. Scott Phillips
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