 "Photo: UWG Sports Information")
The West Georgia Lady Wolves made a late game surge only to come up short Saturday night in the Coliseum, losing to the West Alabama Tigers 52-49 on. The loss was a significant blow to West Georgia’s postseason chances and it put a damper on the post game Senior Night festivities.
West Georgia managed to climb back from an early 16-point deficit, but the Wolves couldn’t sustain any offensive rhythm, only shooting 29% from the field.
“We played hard tonight but we just didn’t shoot good enough to win,” said UWG head coach Craig Roden. “You can’t fall into a 16-point hole in conference play and expect to be able to pull it out, especially this time of year when teams are playing their best basketball.”
West Alabama opened the game on fire, scoring the first seven points unanswered by West Georgia. It took almost three minutes for the Wolves to score their first basket, as junior guard Charlease Williams was able to get a lay-up in the paint. The Lady Tigers scored at will for the next three minutes of the game, going on a 11-0 run fueled by dominate post play from senior forward Latashia Greer. With 14:37 remaining in the opening half, West Alabama had its largest lead of the night at 18-2.
The Wolves struck back with a three-pointer from junior guard Whitley Mayberry that jump-started their offense. West Georgia began to attack the basket, getting lay-ups from Williams and junior forwards Tearra Henderson and Anelia Murray, cutting the lead to 20-15 with nine minutes to play in the first half. The Wolves would continue to scrap and eventually pull within three points of the Tigers at 24-21. UWA freshman guard Dakota Powell answered with a three-pointer to close out the first half and the Wolves would go into halftime trailing 27-23.
Determined to get off to a better start in the second half, West Georgia got the ball into the post early, getting lay-ups from Murray and Williams to tie the score at 29 with 17:34 remaining in the game. With the game tied and pressure mounting, neither team scored over the next two and a half minutes of sloppy play. The Wolves eventually struck first, taking the lead at 31-29 from a Murray lay-up in the paint with 15:12 to go.
The lead was short lived as West Alabama went back inside to Greer who scored eight points in six minutes to extend the Tigers lead to 41-34. The Wolves continued to fight, getting some clutch shooting from junior guard Thomassian Wyatt and more lay-ups from Murray and Williams to pull within three points of the Tigers at 50-47.
With 43 seconds remaining in the game, coach Roden called a timeout to set up his defense. The Wolves needed a quick stop and implemented a full-court press hoping to force a turnover. Unable to get the ball to their best ball handler, West Alabama inbounded the ball to junior guard Nicole Dames. Under swarming pressure from the Wolves defense, Dames took two steps before dribbling and two more steps after dribbling before the officials granted a timeout to West Alabama. The crowd erupted in chants of “blow the whistle,” in what appeared to be an obvious missed traveling call.
“It was clearly a missed call, but it didn’t cost us the game,” said coach Roden.
The traveling call would have given West Georgia the ball back with 34 seconds to go and a chance to tie the game, but West Alabama was able to maintain possession and run out most of the clock. Both teams fouled and made two free throws, but the game ended in a Tigers win, 52-49.
After the game, West Georgia honored their seniors in front of the home crowd. Among the seniors honored were forwards Alexis Pace, Renee Reece, and guard RéNate Lopez. Pace was a member of the team for five years and started the last seasons. Reece has been a member of the team for three years and Lopez the last two.
“It is a special night when you can honor three seniors,” said coach Roden. “Lopez really worked hard in the off season to become a better all around player and has always been one of our best three point shooters. Reece has been a great role player, hard worker, and great teammate. Pace has been here through the good and the bad and really developed into a good ball player. Four year players are special, but five year players are even more special.”
To make the postseason, the Wolves will have to win their final conference games on the road at Alabama-Huntsville and Valdosta State; and they will need UA-Huntsville to beat West Alabama. It will be tough sledding, but coach Roden is confident that his girls will fight to the bitter end.
“We got a tough group of girls that never give up. Even behind by 16 tonight they never quit. We just have to go out and play hard and hopefully things will go our way,” said Roden.
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