Huge third quarter leads Andrew Jackson past Oceanside, advances to third round
Andrew Jackson went into halftime leading 28-18 over visiting Oceanside Collegiate in the second round of the 2A girls basketball state playoffs Saturday night.
The team sparked off a 10-0 run to start the game, but the offense ran cold down the stretch as Oceanside threatened to build some momentum out of the break.
Andrew Jackson needed something steady to keep the offense going, so it turned to the 2A Girls Basketball Player of the Year: 6-foot-2 junior forward Tamia Watkins.
Watkins scored 16 of her game-high 30 points as the Volunteers exploded for 45 points in the second half — including 26 in the third quarter — to pull away with a 73-40 victory over the Landsharks.
“Coach (Steven Fair) just told us to keep pushing and limit our turnovers, to work our way inside and out because our shots had gotten cold in the second,” Watkins said. “He told us to work in, and once we realized they couldn’t stop us going to the rack, we just kept going to it.”
Watkins served as the dominant presence on the interior, grabbing offensive rebounds for easy second-chance baskets and blocking several Oceanside shot attempts in the paint.
Fair knew it was going to take a team effort to win Saturday night, but he also knew how much Watkins would key into their success.
“We went into the locker room, and we talked about Tamia Watkins,” Fair said. “We told her, ‘You’re the player of the year in 2A ball for a reason. Let’s go out there and play,’ and the girls agreed. They said they were going to feed her and feed her and feed her until she couldn’t be fed anymore. A tremendous team effort.”
Watkins’ play on the inside opened up a lot of room for her guards to find their own shots.
Sophomore guard and fellow all-state player Ni’Yonna Asbelle scored 19 of her season-high 26 points in the second half, while senior Emiley McCall knocked down three 3-pointers, the last of which put her over the threshold for 1,000 career points for the Volunteers.
It was a tremendous performance for an Andrew Jackson team that wasn’t at full strength, missing sophomore forward Ayona Alexander (18.5 ppg, 12.6 rpg), who is still nursing a foot injury. They had other challenges as well.
“As a coach, we always talk about next man up, and the girls have responded tremendously,” Fair said. “Even our sixth man (Leah Shropshire) off the bench, she’s out with a stomach bug and hadn’t practiced or played since Wednesday night. So we’re dealing with a lot of different things. Asbelle, she was dealing with a cold tonight, and she found a way to persevere and help the team to a victory.”
Alexander is expected to be fit to play by the state championship game, but there is room for optimism that she could make a return sooner.
Andrew Jackson (24-4) will go on the road to play Woodland in the third round Tuesday.
Other Saturday scores
5A Boys:
T.L. Hanna 50, Nation Ford 43
4A Boys:
Catawba Ridge 78, Greenwood 49
Lancaster 64, North Augusta 54
