ALBANY — Paula McDonald said the mental toughness is still lacking when it comes to playing Deerfield.
The Lady Raiders shot nine percent in the first half in falling behind 22-9 and fell to the Lady Knights, 41-30.
"We're very even as far as the teams," said McDonald. "But there's still a little bit of a mental block. I thought as far as the first half, it almost looked like it would be a repeat of our previous game. We just didn't want to shoot."
Deerfield (19-6, 7-1) beat Southland 35-18 in the first meeting in which it held Southland scoreless over the final 10 minutes of the game.
Tobi West and Sara Schuster led the Lady Raiders (14-12, 4-4) with eight points apiece; Caitlin Reid had a team-high nine rebounds, and West had six.
McDonald said the game was physical, and her team needs to adjust better.
"The girls have to understand that's part of it," she said.
Sarah Shellhaas led Deerfield with 17 points.
Southland enters the region tournament on Tuesday as the No. 3 seed and will play Westfield at 4 p.m. at Georgia Southwestern. The two teams split the two meetings with each team winning on its home floor.
"We split with them, and we have to look at the film at the things we did right in the second game and key in on that," said McDonald. "We know what each other will do, we have to out-execute them. It's postseason play time, and regardless of where you play, you have to be ready. Defense is the key. We have our work cut out for us, and we have to put two halves together."
Boys
Deerfield 84, Southland 31
The Knights' domination of region opponents continued as Michael Matthews led all scorers with 23 points, and Reggie Brown had 20 as they dropped the Raiders for a second time.
But unlike the first meeting in which Southland led 20-18 at the half and held Deerfield to its lowest point total of the year in a 47-35 loss, the Knights (22-1, 8-0) jumped on the Raiders from the tip, leading 41-17 at the half.
After scoring 27 points in the first meeting, Jose Hernandez was held to three. Andres Charparo led Southland (8-16, 2-6) with 10 points.
With Brookwood's 46-45 overtime win against Calvary Christian on Friday, the two teams will meet again in a play-in game for the region tournament, which begins Tuesday.
Even though the three teams are tied in region play, Southland will go in as the No. 3 seed because of the tiebreaker and play Westfield at 5:30 p.m. at GSW.
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Southland no match for Deerfield
Both teams enter region tournament as No. 3 seed
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