By By Jeff Byrd/staff writer
Jan. 23, 2002
A loss Tuesday night to visiting Heidelberg and the Southeast Lauderdale Lady Tigers could pretty much kiss a top-three seed for next month's division tournament goodbye.
For another night at least, Southeast will stay alive following a 72-66 win over the Lady Oilers. Southeast moves to 5-4 in Division 5-3A.
Heidelberg falls to third place at 6-2 in the seven-team division. West Lauderdale leads the division at 8-1 and Choctaw Central moves up to second at 8-2.
In boys action, Heidelberg High School beat Southeast 81-41.
While his team may not make the top three, Southeast girls coach Joe Miller said the win on Tuesday had some significance.
The two teams were tied at 66-66 with 1:30 to play. A basket in the lane by Southeast's Samantha Smith broke the tie with 1:02 left.
Heidelberg had its best chance to tie with 37.3 seconds left, but missed two free throws.
Southeast rebounded and got the ball to Lesley Ruffin who was fouled.
Ruffin made both shots to make it 70-66. She came back with 13 seconds left to hit two more to ice the game.
Ruffin was six-for-six from the line in the second half. As a team, Southeast was an impressive 16-of-19 at the stripe for a sizzling 84.2 percent.
Comparatively, Heidelberg was just one of four from the line in the second half and nine-of-19 for the game.
The two teams spent much of the first half either tied or within a basket of one another.
It was 15-15 after a quarter and 32-32 with 10 seconds to go in the half.
That was where Bender made consecutive steals near mid-court resulting in uncontested baskets for Heidelberg. It also made the score 36-32 at the half.
Heidelberg went up seven on a couple occasions in the third quarter only to see Southeast close to within 55-52 at quarter's end. Ebony Moore scored six off the bench to go with two baskets each from Kenitta Cooley and Ree Newell to help the Lady Tigers.
Ruffin finished with 19 points. Smith had 17 followed by Cooley and Moore with 12 each.
Bender paced Heidelberg with a game high 26 points. Catina Fowler chipped in 17.
Heidelberg Boys 81
Southeast Boys 41
Southeast had initial plans of trying to slow down Heidelberg but it didn't work. The Oilers were too quick and too good for the Tigers to stop.
The Oilers turned a 9-3 game into a 16-5 first quarter edge. Ben Reed scored the first basket of the second quarter to make it 16-7. It was all down hill from there.
Heidelberg outscored Southeast 28-10 for the remainder of the quarter to go up 44-17 at the half. The Oilers went on to post the 40-point win.
Heidelberg is now 18-5 overall and 8-0 in Division 5-3A. Southeast falls to 4-20.
The Oilers placed five players in double figures. Cedric Pierce tossed in 19.
Marvin McDonald chipped in 15 and was followed by Derrick Turner with 12, Fred Stephens with 11 and Jessie Jones had 10.
Southeast was paced by nine points from LaPatrick Carlisle.