Ledford girls survive Storm

Wed. February 15, 2012 at 11:43 p.m. | By Mike Duprez

WINSTON-SALEM | As the regular season champion of the Mid-Piedmont Conference, Ledford’s girls were already assured of the conference’s No. 1 seed in next week’s state playoffs.

That meant the Panthers were ripe for a trap and Southern Guilford nearly sprung it Wednesday night.

Courtney Callicutt’s layup just over a minute into overtime finally put the top-seeded Panthers ahead for good and they held on for a 58-56 win over fourth-seeded Southern Guilford in the semifinals of the MPC tournament at North Forsyth’s Carmichael Gym.
Ledford (21-4) will face either Southwestern Randolph or Asheboro in the finals at 6 p.m. Friday.

“They pressed us a little bit,” said Ledford coach John Ralls. “We didn’t do a good job of handling the ball and turned it over a bunch.”

Though they never trailed at any point, the Panthers were never comfortably ahead after a 9-1 start. And they weren’t completely safe after Callicutt’s basket.

Emmalee Thomas led the Panthers with 17 points but the biggest plays were made by the smallest player on the court — five-foot freshman guard MacKenzie Cranford, who scored 14 points. Often befuddling the Storm with a wicked crossover dribble, Cranford got 10 of her points in the fourth quarter and overtime. Cranford, who was a perfect 6-for-6 from the free throw line, hit two from the charity stripe with 1:27 left to give the Panthers a four-point margin. Southern Guilford’s Aeriel Harris, who led her team with 14 points, scored inside with 1:08 left to cut the margin to two again.

The Panthers lost the ball on a jump-ball tieup with 22.7 seconds left and Southern Guilford coach William Whitaker called a timeout. But the Storm turned the ball over on the inbounds pass and Cranford was fouled with 16.6 seconds left. The freshman canned two more free throws to push the margin back to four.

“MacKenzie did a great job,” Ralls said.

Southern Guilford’s Jasmine Harper hit a layup right before the horn to make it closer.

The Storm had a chance to win in regulation with the score knotted at 52-52. Whitaker called a timeout with 39.6 seconds left to set up a final shot but the Storm ended up turning the ball over. Cranford’s jumper was off the mark and the game went into overtime.

Leigh Ann Midkiff added 10 points for Ledford and Callicutt had eight.

Myra Henderson scored 13 points for Southern Guilford, which fell to 7-13, and Harper had 12.

Mike Duprez can be reached at 249-3981, ext. 218 or mike.duprez@the-dispatch.com.