'Our worst game': Lady 'Cats stumble in region championship

Feb. 17—VALDOSTA — A bad game could not have come at a worse time for the Valdosta Lady Wildcats.

Facing the archrival Lowndes Vikettes with the Region 1-7A Championship on the line, the Lady 'Cats played what head coach E.A. Wilcox called 'our worst game' in a 58-38 loss Thursday night.

The Lady 'Cats shot just 23% from the floor and 2 of 21 from beyond the arc with 18 turnovers in the game.

"First of all, I'm gonna give all the respect to the Lowndes Vikettes and Coach Tookes — they did an outstanding job tonight. Their girls were ready. They were prepared, they played hard and they deserved to win," Wilcox said in his office after the game. "Secondly, I do believe this was our worst game. If I wanted to look at any of our games that we've played this season, that had to be our worst game — our worst shooting night, our worst defensive night, our worst rebounding night.

"We played very bad. Nobody made us play bad. I'm not saying Lowndes' players made us play bad because they didn't. All of our stuff, in my opinion, was self-inflicted and we just played very poorly. ... They made more shots than we made and made more plays than we made."

Thursday's game was marred by a barrage of whistles that affected both teams. In total, 43 personal fouls were called — 24 against Valdosta and 19 against Lowndes — as well as a technical foul on Lowndes head coach Antonia Tookes for arguing a call with 2:59 left in the third quarter.

Foul trouble hampered the Lady 'Cats in the first half as McDonald's All-American Essence Cody and starting guard Nadia Gardner were saddled on the bench with two fouls each and sat the majority of the second quarter.

Cody and Gardner combined for 37 points in Valdosta's semifinal win over Richmond Hill Tuesday. Their impact was sorely missed in the first half as the Vikettes jumped out to a 30-17 lead at halftime.

"I'm not going to blame referees. I'm not going to blame anything on anyone else...even though I felt like the game was poorly officiated," Wilcox said. "There were some questionable calls throughout the evening, but I do believe that we played our worst game of the season tonight...and it's probably the worst time to play your worst game when you're trying to win a region championship on your home floor.

"Our best players were sitting on the bench at the end of the first half because of foul trouble and there were a few questionable calls on those foul calls. I think the referees were a little bit too much in the game at times and sometimes they were absent in the game."

The Vikettes kept the pressure on with an 11-4 spurt to start the third quarter as sophomore Kaci Demps scored on a tough drive then buried a 3-pointer from the right wing then senior Faith Johnson split a pair of free throws and knocked down a three of her own to push the lead to 41-21.

Following the technical foul on Tookes, Cody split the technical free throws then sank both of her free throws on the shooting foul with 2:59 left in the quarter. She followed that up with a seven-foot jumper in the lane, but the Vikettes answered once more as Demps got free along the baseline for a layup and Aryana Thomas got to the rim and scored while drawing the fourth foul on Gardner with 2:05 left in the frame.

The Lady 'Cats finished the third with a spark as Denver Arnold came up with back-to-back steals for breakaway layups to cut the deficit to 15. Arnold's back-to-back steals for layups was coincidentally how Demps finished the second quarter for the Vikettes.

Arnold's two hoops keyed an 8-0 run capped by back-to-back baskets inside by Cody to pull the Lady 'Cats within 11 with 6:56 to play in the game.

The momentum was short-lived, however, as the Vikettes answered with a quick six points as Demps hit a short bank shot from the left block followed by a layup from Kimora Wade and a score inside from Otaifo Esenbhalu to swell the lead to 17 with under 4 minutes to play.

"We went on an 8-0 run at end of the third quarter into the fourth quarter that got us within striking distance," Wilcox said. "We got it down to 11 and we thought we were right there and ready to turn the curve, then we get a turnover. They get an extra possession or somebody makes a tough shot or they get a foul call or something like that and it kind of stopped our momentum from breaking into what we were trying to get into. We were trying to get down to that single-digit mark, but we couldn't quite get there. It was tough...it was tough."

The Lady 'Cats only got as close as 15 the rest of the way as Demps fouled out with 3:47 left, Cody picked up her fifth foul with 1:23 left and Wade fouled out with 36.7 seconds left.

Following a layup by junior Aniyah Bradfield off of a steal by Cody with 3:14 left, the Vikettes did what they'd done all night long — find an answer.

Out of a Valdosta timeout, Johnson attacked off the dribble and scored followed by a difficult runner in the lane by freshman Kayla Jackson and a three-point play by Otaifo to go up by 22 with 51.3 seconds remaining.

With the win, the Vikettes claimed its second straight Region 1-7A Championship. Demps and Otaifo scored 16 points each to lead the Vikettes while Johnson added 14 points in the win.

Despite earning the No. 1 seed, the Lady 'Cats squandered an opportunity to cap their inaugural season in 7A with a region title.

Cody struggled all night before finally finding her footing in the second half, finishing with 13 points on 4 of 14 shooting. Despite her struggles, she still managed a double-double with 13 rebounds to go along with six blocks. Arnold scored nine points on 3 of 17 shooting while Bradfield added six points in the loss.

"We didn't capitalize on a lot," Wilcox said. "Even when we went inside to Essence, she missed some baskets, too — some easy stuff. We just had a poor shooting night and it was really obvious.

"I told (Essence) it's her senior year and I understand how bad she wanted this. The last time we won a region championship was her freshman year with her sister Jayla, Ja'Mya Johnson, that team that went to the Final Four that year. She wanted to see that same success this year. She won Region Player of the Year so falling short as a No. 1 seed in the region tournament is not the goal that she wanted."

An area that contributed greatly to the loss was Valdosta's inability to contain Demps and Johnson off the dribble, which put considerable pressure on its already compromised frontline to try to protect the rim.

Wilcox was candid in his assessment of his perimeter defense, saying, "Our bigs couldn't really step up and block those shots that we normally get, but our defense...our girls have just got to keep somebody in front of them and we did a terrible job of defending man-to-man."

UP NEXT

Valdosta will be a No. 2 seed in the Class 7A state playoffs and awaits its first-round opponent next week.

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