| Lady Twisters thankful for twin wins | | Posted: Tuesday, November 29, 2011 5:59 am
| By RANDY CAVIN
Special to The Messenger
The Union City girls feasted even after the Thanksgiving holiday.
The Lady Tornadoes beat Class 3A Munford 48-38 on Friday, then topped double-A Jackson Northside 37-35 on Saturday in the annual Westview Thanksgiving Classic.
The annual event — played both at Westview and Martin Middle School — drew three Obion County entries (both UC teams and the South Fulton girls).
The UC boys fell to reigning Class 2A state champion Bolivar 50-39, while the SF girls took care of business against Dyer County 67-54.
UC 48, Munford 38 (G)
Sophomore forward Amber Fair lit up the scoreboard in the second half, scoring 18 of her game high 21 points over the final two periods.
Fair hit four 3-pointers in the half to go along with three 2-pointers. She hit three of her four 3-pointers in the fourth quarter and scored 11 of her 18 points during that span.
The Lady Cougars went toe-to-toe with the Lady Tornadoes through the first three quarters and led 24-21 at halftime.
Fair’s field goal late in the third put UC up 30-29 heading into the stretch run.
Jackie Hudson’s 3-point play stretched the lead to eight in the waning moments.
Hudson finished the game with 12 points, while Tory Reedy (11) gave Union City three players in double figures.
UC 37, North Side 35 (G)
Fair grabbed a defensive rebound and went coast-to-cast for a game-winning layup in the final seconds to give UC (4-2) its second win in as many days over a larger-classification opponent.
North Side looked to take control of the game in the fourth period after Brendi Stokes hit a three pointer at the 6:12 mark to put the Lady Indians up 30-26, but Hudson hit a free throw to complete a 3-point play to bring the Lady Tornadoes to within one.
After three lead changes in 1:40, North Side’s Quinn Thomas tied the score at 34 all with a jump shot. Brionca Cole hit one of two bonus shots to give the Lady Indians a one-point lead with 47 seconds left.
Stokes had a chance to extend North Side’s lead but missed the front end of a bonus shot with 17.7 left in the game. Fair grabbed the rebound and went the distance of the court to put Union City up.
“In the second half of the first game, I thought we really turned it on offensively and defensively,” UC head coach Eddie Suiter said. “In the second game it was just an ugly game. Both teams missed a lot of good looks.”
The Lady Tornadoes play host to Bradford on Friday.
SF 67, Dyer Co. 54 (G)
The Devillettes (2-2) had little trouble against the Lady Choctaws on Friday with two players scoring more than 20 points.
Taleeah Cross scored 21 points for the Devilettes through three periods of play before sitting out the entire fourth period. Kalon Martin scored a game high 22 points for South Fulton.
Cross scored 10 points in the first period to help South Fulton build a 22-16 lead. Martin and Cross kept the pressure on the Lady Choctaws in the second period and the Devilettes led 33-25 at the half.
South Fulton hosts Gleason on Tuesday.
UC 39, Bolivar 50 (B)
The Union City boys (2-3) came up on the short end of what head coach Shane Sisco said was a poor free throw and perimeter shooting game for his kids.
The Tornados went 7-of-15 from the line and 4-of-22 from 3-point range and shot 14-of-40 overall.
“Our shooting is a problem and until we correct it we are going to continue to struggle,” Sisco said.
Both teams kept the score close throughout the first half and up to the 5:03 mark in the third period with Marcus DeBerry hitting a pair of free throws to make the score 27-26 in Bolivar’s favor.
With just under four minutes left in third period, the Tigers went on an eight-point run after the Tornadoes had turned the ball over on four out of five possessions to end the period.
Union City got no closer than eight points thereafter.
Trey Lewis led the Twisters with 14 points.
Published in The Messenger 11.28.11 | | | | |
