WBB: 'Cats squeeze out win over Timpson
Timpson's Rachel Reeves during Tuesday night's game in Bearcat
Gymnasium. (Photo by John Kueger)
BECKVILLE, Tx -- Any team that plays the Timpson Lady Bears knows that a double-digit lead is never safe. Just ask the Beckville Ladycats.
After building a 14-point halftime lead Tuesday night here in Bearcat Gymnasium Tuesday night and widening it to 18 midway through the third quarter, Beckville saw the Lady Bears come storming back to trim it to four late in the game before the 'Cats held off the rally for a key 45-36 win.
The victory was critical for Beckville (9-12) and damaging to Timpson (4-10) early in the District 22-1A chase. Beckville, which was coming off a loss to league-leader Tenaha last week, evened its district record at 1-1, while the Lady Bears dipped to 0-2 and is now in last place in the standings.
In other District 22-1A results from Tuesday, Tenaha (10-11) stayed tied atop the standings with a 2-0 league mark with a 68-28 win over Gary (3-7, 0-2 district). Garrison (5-9) is also tied for first place at 2-0 after knocking off Shelbyville (13-6), 46-38. The Lady Dragons are now tied with Beckville for third, with Gary and Timpson in a tie for last place at 0-2.
There will be some key matchups on Friday night, with Tenaha traveling to Garrison in a battle of the league's unbeaten teams. The Ladycats will try to keep pace with the leaders and move into a second-place tie when they travel to Gary for a 6:30 p.m. game at the Lady Bobcats' homecoming. Timpson will host Shelbyville is another key game as the Lady Bears try to pick up their first District 22-1A win and the Lady Dragons try to keep pace with Beckville.
In games next Tuesday, Beckville will host Shelbyville, Timpson will travel to Tenaha and Garrison will visit Gary.
Jakelia Caraway, Timpson's go-to player who led all scorers in Tuesday's game with 24 points, had a couple break-away buckets in the first half, but she was pretty much kept in check by the Ladycats throughout the first half. She scored two points in the first quarter as Beckville led 5-4 and added four more in the second quarter when Beckville went on a 19-6 spurt to build a 24-10 lead.
"We felt good coming into this game because we played Tenaha physical last week and we came into tonight's game with the mindset that we were 'playing without officials' and that the girls won't be getting any 'calls' and not to expect any fouls, but to play through fouls and contact," said Beckville head coach Britney Redfearn.
That's exactly how the Ladycats played for the first 16 minutes as Ivy Rieke scored six points and T'Ouja Adams chipped in five more as Beckville scored 15 of the final 17 points over a span of 4:33 of the quarter to build a 24-10 lead. Ten of the Ladycat points during the run came from inside the paint.
"We are fine once we set the tempo in the first half, but as far as making adjustments and responding to other team's when they do something we're not ready for, we're a little sluggish with that," Redfearn added. "We came out just like we had to and set the tempo of the game."
But after forcing 21 Timpson turnovers in the first half and holding Caraway at bay, things began to change in the second half. Caraway dropped in 10 points in the third quarter as the Ladycats committed seven turnovers. Beckville still held a 12-point lead at the end of the third quarter, but the momentum had clearly began to shift and the Lady Bears began making their big run in the fourth quarter.
Led by Caraway's ball handling and shooting, Timpson outscored Beckville 12-4 over the first 5:30 of the final period, forcing nine Ladycat turnovers while THS only had one to cut the lead to 40-36 with 1:30 remaining.
"(Timpson) matched up with some of our ball handlers in the second half and that forced some of our less-experienced ball-handlers to bring the ball up," Redfearn noted. "Then we had a lack of blocking out on the boards and Timpson was working very hard for every rebound.
"We also weren't doing a very good job of rotating back and we were struggling to regain the tempo."
Leading by four, Rieke hit 1-of-2 free throws and Maya Bradford came up with a huge offensive rebound after Rieke's miss. Bradford then hit Adams with a perfect pass and Adams scored on a layup with 34 seconds left to create a 43-36 Beckville lead.
After LaToya Cartwright missed the front end of a 1-and-1 free throw with 21.7 seconds left, Bradford sank a pair from the line with 12.8 seconds remaining to ice the contest for BHS.
Adams led the Beckville scoring attack with 17 points, dumping in eight in the third quarter alone. Rieke scored 14 points and Bradford contributed 10. Cheyenne Haynes and Cassidi Whitaker scored two apiece as Beckville hit 36% (20-of-56) for the game.
Tammi Harris added six points for Timpson, while Rachel Reeves scored two points, but most of the scoring load was on the Timpson guard.
"We were reminded tonight how quick a lead of 10 or 15 can be turned into six or eight points when you're playing a team with quickness and speed like Timpson," the Beckville coach added. "We've got to do a better job of sustaining a lead once we get it.
"This was a big win for us, now we need to come back strong against Gary on Friday."
Rieke led Beckville in the rebounding department against Timpson, pulling down 13 boards, with five of them coming on the offensive end. Adams added 11 boards and Bradford tallied five assists and seven steals.
"I was very pleased with the play of (Bradford) tonight," Redfearn reasoned. "She came out very aggressive early on and played great late down the stretches. That's the kind of play I need out of her on a consistent basis."