BIRMINGHAM, Ala.- Cold Springs’ Paige Adams won the 2008 State Championship as a player, and she’ll get the chance to win one as a head coach in just her first season leading the Lady Eagles.
On Monday afternoon, no. 10-ranked Cold Springs took on Lanett at Legacy Arena in Birmingham with a trip to the State Championship on the line. Behind a 33%-to-58% shooting percentage jump from the first to second half and a suffocating defensive performance, the Lady Eagles defeated the Panthers 55-43.
Lanett came out firing in the first, going 5-9 from the floor while holding the Lady Eagles to just 4-12 shooting. The Panthers’ Makenley James scored nine of her eventual 17 points in the period as Cold Springs struggled to settle in early. The period ended with an 11-11 tie.
Opening the second, both teams traded turnovers before Cold Springs began finding an offensive rhythm. While Lanett was still disruptive, Macie Huffstutler opened scoring for Cold Springs with a hard-fought putback to start what would eventually become a 11-4 run for the Eagles. Their ball movement finally began to click, with Aleah Addison finding Hollyn Bruer on a breakaway, then Huffstutler finding Ella Dickerson for a contested mid-range jumper. On defense, they began to tighten up as well, with Bruer and Paizley Whitlow playing suffocating perimeter defense. Whitlow, capping off a 12-2 points-off-turnover differential, pickpocketed a Panther guard and took it all the way home for a lay. Despite still only shooting 4-12 for the quarter again, Cold Springs went into the half leading 22-15 behind their defensive effort, which held Lanett to 2-10 shooting in the second.
The Lady Eagles came out of the break with a new energy. Two straight turnovers led to two straight baskets for Huffstutler and Addison, which kicked off a 12-0 run to open the third quarter. On the stark difference in play from the second to the third quarter, Adams said “We knew Lanett was going to try to speed things up and play chaotic. We played in that chaos in the first half for sure. I told the girls ‘if we could just slow it down, be calm in the midst of that storm,’ that we would come out on top.”
Lanett would eventually find some semblance of offense after Addison capped off the run for Cold Springs. Five points came from free throws, and a put-back and jumper from Nakeriona Hand gave the Panthers life towards the end of the quarter. Dickerson ended the quarter with a driving layup for Cold Springs, who led 42-26 at the end of the third and looked primed to run away with the game.
The Panthers weren’t done just yet, however. The Lady Eagles came out in the fourth shaky, and Lanett’s desperation-time press defense was a big part of it. Lanett’s James took advantage of this, putting up two layups to start the period, one of which she took coast-to-coast after a steal. Serenity Roberts then hit a massive corner three, pulling the Panthers to just a 42-33 single-digit deficit.
With all the energy in the building going Lanett’s way, the Eagles looked to their star and leader, Ella Dickerson. Driving down the court, Whitlow found Dickerson on the wing, who, without hesitation, took the deep three. She nailed it, snatching the air out of the Lanett bench and crowd, and putting Cold Springs back up 12.
“I’m not sure that was the right shot to take,” Dickerson said, grinning. She added, “I looked at Miss Adams right before, and I know she has all the faith in the world in me, and I know my teammates believe in me. You just get this feeling sometimes, right before you catch the ball, and I knew we needed a big score- we needed a big basket. I feel like it really helped our confidence.”
The rest of the game was a dogfight, with chippy fouls by Lanett attempting to force turnovers, but Cold Springs stayed composed, sealing a 55-43 win over the Panthers to advance to the ASHAA 2A Girls State Championship game on Friday at 9 a.m. at Legacy Arena.
“To be here, and we expected to be here, we put pressure on ourselves to be here. So, being in the coach’s chair, obviously I’ve put a lot of pressure on myself, but- credit to these girls for being relentless and refusing to lose. We’ve lost ten games this year, played a really brutal schedule, but we’ve won the ones we needed to win and I’m just really thankful for them,” Adams said after the win.
Dickerson led the Lady Eagles with 22 points, three rebounds, one assist and steal each and two blocks. Huffstutler and Bruer were the next highest scorers with seven points a piece.
The Lady Eagles will take on the winner of no. 9 Clarke County vs. no. 1 North Sand Mountain in the State Championship game.
