Lady 'Cats squander chance to advance against Carrolton

Feb. 23—VALDOSTA — The Valdosta Lady Wildcats' state playoff run ended the night it began, falling to the Carrolton Trojans 48-41 Wednesday night.

Despite having several chances to seize the momentum, the Lady 'Cats were undone by ill-timed turnovers and crucial misses that allowed the Trojans to escape with the victory.

"First of all, I would like to say the Carrolton Trojans did an excellent job," Valdosta head coach E.A. Wilcox said in his office after the game. "Their coaching staff — Shon Thomaston, we go way back to the early-2000s. I've known him for a very long time. He's a very good coach. He has a very scrappy, small, quick, high IQ team. They have a lot of fight, a lot of energy, a lot of poise and their team is extremely well-coached. They play very tough defense and I just want to commend him for a great, valiant road victory.

"Secondly, I thought our 2022-23 season should've been longer. I thought we should've gone much further this season than first round. I believe tonight we didn't play our best basketball. In spurts we did, but in spurts we looked very bad. Our guard play along with our post play was very difficult to say the least. I twas very difficult to watch and to witness. I know our fans were thoroughly disappointed in our energy and our effort. But I want to say that we're extremely proud of our girls for kind of overachieving this season with what we have."

A missed 3-pointer by Nylali Wolters was vacuumed in by junior Aniyah Bradfield and put back in the tie the game at 40 with a little more than 5 minutes remaining in the game.

A block by Bradfield on the next possession provided an opening for Valdosta to break through, but a bad pass followed by a traveling violation against Denver Arnold kept points off the board.

"I think a lot of times there were times it was a wide open shot, it was a layup. Then, we missed free throws down the stretch. We had plenty of opportunities to win the game," Wilcox said, raising his voice for emphasis. "We squandered our opportunities. We got a steal, didn't get the layup. We got a wide open basket, it comes out of our hands. One of them, we had a wide open lay and the ball was passed too short. Honestly, there were about 8, 10, 12 points that we just left out there. We just didn't make the shots. Give credit to Carrolton, they did a very good job tonight. ... We kind of blew it."

Out of Valdosta timeout, the Trojans got a stop and went down to take the lead on a layup by sophomore Laura Mitchell to break the deadlock with 3:55 to play.

After consecutive turnovers by the Lady 'Cats, Mitchell knocked down a free-throw line jumper to push the Trojans in front 44-40 with 3 minutes remaining.

With a chance to answer, Arnold gave the ball back to the Trojans as freshman Kimya Jones forced the senior into a five-second violation with 2:46 left. Though the 'Cats managed a steal and regained possession on a held ball, they coughed up the ball again with 1:44 left but did not get hurt as the Trojans gave it right back 8 seconds later.

The Lady 'Cats had a look to cut into the lead, but Nadia Gardner misfired on a 3-pointer and Wolters missed a point-blank layup as the Trojans took over with 1:09 to go.

The Trojans went up 46-40 on a layup by junior Casie Spencer with 58 seconds to play.

Needing points in a hurry, Wilcox drew up a play for Arnold but the 3-pointer came up short. The miss was compounded by the Lady 'Cats letting 18 seconds burn off the clock before fouling Eghosa Obasuyi to extend the game.

Obasuyi missed the front end of the one-and-one and the Lady 'Cats pushed the ball down the court and got it to Bradfield, who drew a foul with 14.4 seconds remaining. Bradfield missed both but Spencer missed the one-and-one on the other end to keep hope alive for Valdosta.

McDonald's All-American Essence Cody split a pair of free throws and Bradfield clanked the putback to effectively put the game out of reach as Spencer sank two free throws with 5.6 seconds left.

"We had our ups and downs this season and this is one of our downs," Wilcox said. "We said the game before with Lowndes was a down for us and this was also a down, even though I believe we played really good in spurts. We showed who we are a little bit and some of those turnovers caught up to us at the end. Missed shots, turnovers and just not being tough — Carrolton's a very tough, scrappy team."

Cody missed a 3-point shot at the buzzer to end the game.

In her final game, Cody finished with 15 points to lead Valdosta. Arnold and Bradfield scored eight points each for the Lady 'Cats in defeat.

"Having a McDonald's All-American is a wonderful asset to have and we really appreciate having Essence Cody here at Valdosta High School and also having Denver Arnold as our point guard because those two more than likely will go on and play (at the next level)," Wilcox said of his star seniors. "Essence definitely will. Denver's got some offers and some schools want her as well."

Obasuyi scored 14 points while Mitchell had 11 to lead the Trojans to the Sweet Sixteen.

Valdosta led 13-11 after the first quarter and went ahead 28-22 as Cody got a deep seal on her defender and scored easily with 48 seconds left before halftime.

However, the Trojans answered back with a tough jumper by Jones that ignited a 7-0 run punctuated by a defensive mistake by Gardner, who fouled Obasuyi on a 3-point heave with 2 seconds left in the half.

Obasuyi made all three free throws to give the Trojans a 29-28 edge at the half.

Valdosta's last lead came with 1:52 left in the third as Makiyah Brewton hit a jumper to give the Lady 'Cats a 35-32 lead.

Carrolton replied with a 3 from Cecelia Spencer to tie the game at 35. An offensive rebound and putback by Mitchell plus the foul broke the tie and the made free throw put the Trojans ahead for good with 1:06 left in the third.

UP NEXT

Valdosta finishes the season 17-11 while Carrolton improves to 16-12. Carrolton advances to the Sweet Sixteen to face the Brookwood Broncos Friday night in Snellville. Tipoff for that game is scheduled for 6:30 p.m.

Shane Thomas is the sports editor at the Valdosta Daily Times.