G’field better off in consolation play

By MIKE HUTCHENS
Press Sports
The third time was the charm for the Greenfield girls.
Avenging a pair of close regular season losses to Lake County, the Lady Yellowjackets claimed third place in the District 14A Tournament with a 64-52 consolation game victory over the Falcon girls Saturday night at South Fulton.
The win gives G’field (17-10) a better seed heading into the Region 7A Tournament, the ’Jackets now set to face Weakley County rival Dresden (21-6) — the runnerup from District 13A — in a quarterfinal game Thursday at the Lions’ Den.
The two teams played a regular season game in early February, Greenfield winning on its homecourt 50-37.
After dropping a semifinal game to No. 1-ranked and eventual tournament champion Union City 53-32 last Thursday, the Lady Yellowjackets bounced back with a solid outing vs. a LC team that had beaten them by four and three points, respectively, during the regular season.
Kalee Kesterson scored 18 points, Brittany Peoples added 15 and Rachel Roberts 12 in a balanced Greenfield effort to offset a game-high 30 markers from Lake County’s Shamon Pearson.
Ashton Pence’s 3-pointer early in the second half gave G’field the lead for good and following treys by Roberts and Alle Dees helped the ’Jackets expand their lead.
Up 45-37 heading into the fourth quarter, Greenfield continued its steady play with Peoples sandwiching a pair of buckets around another Pence trifecta to make it 54-41.
Lake County got not closer than eight the rest of the way.
The Lady Falcons will carry a 14-10 mark into their regional quarterfinal game Thursday at Gleason (22-7), which upset Dresden 38-35 in overtime Saturday night for the District 13A title.
Greenfield’s Kesterson, Peeples and Roberts were all named to the 15-player all-district team by a vote of league coaches. LC’s Pearson and Tiana Gray also made the glitter unit.
Thursday’s Semifinals
UC 53, Greenfield 32
The Lady Yellowjackets got close a couple of times but never overcame a slow start against the state’s No. 1-ranked team.
After the Lady Tornadoes jumped out to a 15-4 lead in the first quarter, scoring eight straight points at one juncture, Greenfield closed the first period with a six-foot runner by Kesterson and a three-point play by Peoples to get within 15-9 at the break.
UC converted a pair of steals into layups and added a free throw to go ahead 20-9 at 3:26 of the second frame. Dees’ triple was answered at the other end by Jackie Hudson for a 23-12 Union City lead, and the Lady ’Jackets were never within single digits the rest of the game.
Greenfield trailed 36-22 after three periods, and then Union City opened the final frame with an 11-2 spurt to expand its lead to 47-24 at 4:41.
Peoples topped Greenfield with 15 points, while Hudson led all players with 20 and Raven Fair added 12 for UC.

Published in The WCP 2.19.13

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