By Kendall Patterson
Staff Writer
In the first game they played in the district tournament, the Eaglettes worked together to pull off a great victory against the Decatur Riverside Panthers, 63-43.
The Eaglettes, who entered the district tournament with a rank of number 3, was expected to win this game over Riverside at number 6.
Now with that win, the Eaglettes will automatically compete in the Regionals tournament. In the past two district games, the Eaglettes were playing for seeding. The Riverside game slightly looked like it was going to be back-and-forth for the first few minutes, but Chester County shifted their gears and began to leave the Panthers in the dust. In fact, at the start of the second quarter, the Eaglettes made a 14-0 run until Riverside scored their first point in the second quarter.
After that, the Eaglettes just kept up their game.
Head Coach Lee Pipkin was happy about their performance on the court.
“I just think they all did well,” she said.
Nonetheless, she mentioned the team still has some things to work on in order to be better.
She stated the team needs to develop the state of mind that they can always improve, even if they are up by a lot of points.
I thought it was a good lesson to be learned,” she said. “I said look, it may be a 20-point game now but what if it was a 2-point game.”
The next game, they played against South Side who sat at number two in the district.
The game started with a layup by Mia Hurst then the Hawks scored a layup with a free throw after a Chester County foul. The score remained 3-2 until about 3 minutes was left in the first.
Chester County then managed to start winning 10-4 until the Hawks came back before the quarter ended to tie it at 10.
In the second, the Eaglettes did gain a 17-11 lead on the South Side Hawks, but they lost that lead soon after.
The two teams battled it out some more and tied it at 31, but the Eaglettes fell behind and remained trailing the rest of the game. The final was 59-48.
Lastly, Pipkin and the Eaglettes played Scotts Hill for the District 14 Class AA Third Place Title and won it.
It was a highly competitive game.
The first quarter had the two teams responding to each other’s shots and ended with Chester County being down by 15-14.
Before halftime, the Eaglettes were able to apply defensive pressure that worked which resulted in them being in the lead at halftime 37-31.
After ending the third being up 56-50, the last quarter put CC’s ability for a last stand to the test.
The Lions were on the heels of the Eaglettes. With about 3 minutes remaining, the Lions were only down by two, 62-60. The Eaglettes were able to sink a free throw with under a minute left but it was still not safe enough to call it a win. With 10.1 seconds left, Mia Hurst was brought to the line after a foul. The rest of the team was on the other side of the court to block the possible three pointer that was to come, so she had no rebounders. After missing the free throw, SH got the ball and attempted to go down court to shoot a three to tie it but Mia stole the ball to end the game.
The final was 63-60.
“I was really proud of how the girls closed out the game. We’ve been having trouble closing out close games. But I thought we made big plays throughout the game.” Pipkin said. “I think this is a great game to have going into regional tourneys.”
