Monday, Mar. 01, 2010

Clayton rally keeps streak going

Demonstrating a win-at-all-costs attitude over the final 13 minutes, Clayton rallied from a 13-point third-quarter deficit to defeat Fayetteville 71st, 71-66, to claim a girls basketball 4-A eastern sectional championship.

The victory, Clayton's 21st consecutive and one that improved the Comets to 28-2 for the season, vaults the Comets into the NCHSAA 4-A eastern regionals, to begin Thursday at Greenville Rose High School.

The regional trip is the first for the Comets since 1991, but it is not where Comets coach Marlon Lee wants his team's season to end.

"We're not going to Greenville just to say we went to Greenville," Lee said. "We set a goal of going to Greenville at the start of the season and we met that, and we set a goal of going undefeated at home and we did that (18-0).

"But we want to go to Greenville and win the first quarter, the second quarter, the third quarter and the fourth quarter of both games."

For a long time Friday night, it seemed that 71st would deny the Comets that opportunity by squashing their goals.

Using an aggressive defense and ferocious rebounding, the Falcons dominated play over the first 19 minutes, punctuating their dominance with an 8-0 run to close out the first half, then continued the assault over the first three minutes of the third quarter.

The Falcons forced 19 Comets turnovers in that time frame and held a 27-14 rebounding advantage. That, along with the inside-outside play of Dasnii Curtis, and the board strength of Simone Ewers, Carolyn Smith and Diona Curtis, the Falcons were on the verge of blowing the game open in the third quarter.

But it was not to be.

Trailing 40-27 and fading fast, Clayton came to life behind the 3-point shooting of Shaquira Hall, who canned a trio of 3-pointers, including back-to-back treys that helped bring the Comets within 49-47 at the end of the period. But the rally was not by Hall alone.

Clayton began to show the grit that had lifted it to the unblemished home record.

Marnikka Young and Vernessa Hinnant began finding the range from the floor and cut into the deficit following Hall's first trey, combining for nine points before Hall's consecutive trifectas.

The Falcons began to get their second wind at the outset of the fourth period, building a six-point lead behind baskets by Carolyn Smith, then holding that advantage until 2:16 remained in the game.

With the score 61-55, Hinnant, Young and Latesha Williams took charge for the Comets.

Williams came up with a variation of a four-point play for the Comets, hitting the first of a two-shot opportunity at the free throw line, to draw the Comets within 61-56.

Her second free throw clanked off the rim, but Hinnant was there to snare the loose ball and send a pass to Williams on the perimeter for a 3-pointer, closing the gap to 61-59.

"I told the girls not to stop playing until the clock said 0:00." Lee said. "We didn't play aggressively all night; they (71st) are a very aggressive team, and we didn't match their aggressiveness."

Smith answered Young's basket for the Falcons' final lead with just over a minute to play, but Clayton responded with a free throw by Williams to knot the score at 64-64. Hinnant gave Clayton the lead for good with a driving lay-up off a steal.

Young led all scorers with 19 points for the Comets, while Hall pumped in 17, Hinnant 16 and Williams 11.