Fouls doom Lexington girls
Fri. February 17, 2012 at 7:00 a.m. | By Mike Duprez
Thomasville's Brooke Ward (right) and Lexington's Chariti Wall get tangled up together while vying for a loose ball during their game Thursday night. (Photo by Donnie Roberts/The Dispatch)
TYRO | The night started badly for Lexington against archrival Thomasville when star center Jasmine Carter went down with a knee injury in the first quarter.
It only got worse for the Yellow Jackets. Much worse.
The Yellow Jackets fought back from a double-digit deficit at one point but Thomasville pulled away for a 57-34 win in their Central Carolina Conference tournament semifinal game Thursday night.
Lexington coach Lamont Johnson was ejected late in the third quarter after getting his second technical foul and the game was halted with 6:16 left in the fourth quarter when Lexington was down to three players. Thomasville scored the last 21 points of the game.
“It was just a terrible day today,” Johnson said.
And costly, as Thomasville took away the CCC’s No. 2 seed for the state playoffs, meaning the Bulldogs will be at home.
“That was one of the goals we set for ourselves, to get that No. 2 seed,” said Thomasville coach Brandon Staton.
There wasn’t a lot of love in this game, with the whistles blowing early and often. With over four minutes left to play in the first quarter, Lexington had already had been called for 10 fouls. Forward Alexis Fowler, one of three Lexington players who fouled out, was called for four fouls in the first quarter alone. Given that Lexington started with just eight players, a war of attrition wasn’t something they could handle.
“I thought our girls fought back hard,” Johnson said. “I thought they showed a lot of class. I was probably inappropriate in getting thrown out. I didn’t think it was a great called game.”
With the Jackets in foul trouble, Alexis Lambert and Christina Coleman led the way as Thomasville pushed out to a 30-16 lead midway through the second quarter. Lambert finished with a game-high 13 points and Coleman had 11.
Sparked by Chariti Wall’s 3-pointer, Lexington scored eight unanswered points before Joslyn Spires hit a floater in the closing seconds to give Thomasville a 36-28 halftime lead.
The Jackets continued to chip away in the third quarter as Charity Kelly opened things up with a 3-pointer. Lexington pulled to within 36-34 midway through the period and had a couple of chances to tie it or take the lead. But by that time, the Jackets were down to six players and three of them had four fouls. There wasn’t much margin for error.
JoJo Davis got a hot hand for the Bulldogs, hitting a 3-pointer, layup and free throw, and they started pulling away.
Kelly, who got called for a technical earlier, fouled out at the 1:47 mark of the third period, and the Jackets were down to five players. Wall fouled out with 47 seconds left in the quarter and Lexington was left with four players. An irate Johnson got his second technical and he was gone, too.
Lexington continued playing with four players for the rest of the quarter and into the fourth. Then backup forward Naja Vinson was injured, leaving the Jackets with just three players .Shouts were exchanged between the teams and law enforcement officers got in between them as a precaution. Shortly after that, Lexington’s players filed into the locker room and the game was over.
“My concern was protecting our player who was injured,” said Lexington co-athletic director Azeem Wahid-Holman. “We wanted her to be safe. They told us we could have gone on with two players but the decision was made to end the game.”
It wasn’t going to be competitive anyway with three against five.
“I just want to thank our girls for playing hard,” Staton said. “Their girls played hard too. They just got in foul trouble and it got out of hand.”
The tension had subsided after the game as Carter exchanged hugs with several Thomasville players.
Thomasville will take on Salisbury in the tournament championship game at 6 p.m. Friday.
Mike Duprez can be reached at 249-3981, ext. 218 or mike.duprez@the-dispatch.com.