A furious White Hall comeback push in the second half of Monday night’s girls basketball game wasn’t quite enough to overcome Watson Chapel’s big lead.
Watson Chapel outlasted its cross-county rival in a 70-61 win at the Bert Honey Gymnasium in White Hall.
Watson Chapel (9-3) led by as much as 50-25 in the third quarter but saw that lead dwindle to 52-48 early in the fourth. The Lady Wildcats finally got going again and responded with an 11-0 run to reestablish control of the game.
Lady Wildcats Coach Lenell Brown said Watson Chapel got complacent with its big lead, but seniors, like Alexiah Anderson and Jayla Rodgers, showed their leadership in getting the team back on track.
“Those leaders, man, I’m telling you, they just know how to win a ball game,” Brown said. “They told everybody, ‘Hey, listen. Let’s settle down, and let’s finish the game.’ That made me comfortable. That made everybody else comfortable, and that’s what happened.”
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
White Hall (6-3) hung around for most of the first quarter, which featured five lead changes. The Lady Bulldogs scored first and led by as much as 6-3. Junior Paige White gave White Hall an 11-10 lead with 2:39 remaining in the quarter.
Anderson gave Watson Chapel the lead back for good with a 3-pointer, and Watson Chapel led 19-13 after the first quarter. The Lady Wildcats finished the first and opened the second on a 21-4 run and went on to lead 41-21 at halftime.
The Lady Wildcats reached their largest lead, 50-25, with 5 minutes remaining in the third quarter on a pair of free throws by senior Maranda Emerson. Brown said Watson Chapel’s ability to run the floor got the Lady Wildcats that lead.
“They know our motto,” Brown said. “Defend, we’re going to rebound, and we’re going to run. It don’t take talent to defend. It don’t take talent to go in there and get a rebound. It don’t take talent to go out there and run. You can do those three things for me, you can get on the court.”
White Hall junior Kaleigh Barnett scored the next shot before senior Jelayla Stith scored the game’s next seven points. Stith later hit a 3-pointer to cut the deficit to 52-40 by the end of the third, then converted a three-point play 13 seconds into the fourth.
The White Hall run reached 23-2, with Stith contributing 13 points. Senior Christian Lovett, whose two free throws late in the third were the Lady Wildcats’ only points during that span, ended it with a layup that started Watson Chapel’s 11-0 run.
The Lady Bulldogs tried one more time to rally with a 10-2 push to cut it to 65-58, but the Lady Wildcats went 3 of 4 from the free throw line in the final minute of the game to see it out despite a Stith 3-pointer.
Brown said he was surprised by how well White Hall shot the ball in the second half.
“They made shots that I didn’t think they were going to make,” Brown said. “I knew that their big girls would step out and shoot it, but I have not seen them shoot the ball as well as they did tonight.”
Watson Chapel made 11 3-pointers, with nine of them coming in the first half. Anderson, who had a 4-point play in the game, led all scorers with 22 points. Emerson and Rodgers scored 17 apiece.
Stith led White Hall with 16 points, all in the second half. Senior Kynnedi Barnett added 15, and senior Blair Weston scored 11.
BOYS: WHITE HALL 66, WATSON CHAPEL 41
The White Hall boys got off to a dominant start and cruised the rest of the night.
White Hall (2-8) scored the first 11 points and ultimately led 18-2 after a dunk by junior Tristen Dunlap. The Bulldogs made three 3-pointers on that run before adding two more by the end of the first quarter.
Bulldogs head Coach Trey Lenox said he loved how well his team started the game.
“Credit to them for coming out strong and just keeping that lead and maintaining it,” Lenox said. “We haven’t been in that situation much, so just to see them actually get the lead and maintain it for once, that was a big stepping stone for this team and just giving them a chance to learn and be in that situation.”
Watson Chapel (3-9) kept the deficit steady for a while, with both teams scoring 12 points each in the second quarter. White Hall didn’t repeat its dominant 24-9 first quarter performance but never let the Wildcats get the deficit down to single digits.
The Bulldogs led 52-33 after the third before finally getting the lead past the 20-point mark early in the fourth. White Hall got to within three points of triggering a running clock in the final minutes but pulled its starters rather than run up the score any further.
Senior Bobby Foster and sophomore Jaxson Turner each scored 14 points to pace the Bulldogs. Nine White Hall players scored.
Watson Chapel junior Ja’Mon Parker scored a game-high 15 points, but no other Wildcat scored more than seven.
