Arts and Sciences' Aizha Little, above, gets control of the ball just as GPS' Katie Bendrick, below, slides into her late in the girls semifinal at 4 p.m. The Lady Patriots defeat GPS 45-30.A one-sided fourth quarter Monday turned a four-point lead for the Arts & Sciences girls' basketball team into a 45-30 semifinal win over Girls Preparatory School in the annual Times Free Press Best of Preps tournament at Chattanooga State.
The Bruisers were down 30-26 at the end of the third quarter, but they were able to score only four points in the final quarter because of the Lady Patriots' pressing defense.
"We're a young team," said GPS coach Wes Moore. "The way they handled it and the way they competed tonight a few more (made) shots and it could have been a lot closer, you never know. We never put our heads down, and we never quit."
A phenomenal performance by guard Lennex Walker got CSAS going in the first half. Walker scored 10 of her team's 15 points in the second quarter. She scored in all areas of the floor with a pair of 3-pointers, three layups and 87.5 percent success from the free-throw line. She totaled 19 points for the game.
"I just tried to shoot the ball when I was open, and focus on hitting my shots," Walker said. "I went to the gym yesterday after practice to work on it. We aren't a team to score a lot of points, so my main goal is to help, play hard defense and get stops."
The Lady Patriots (9-1) scored the first five points of the fourth quarter to extend their lead to nine, then opened a double-digit lead by answering GPS's first bucket of the period with four straight points. GPS failed to score in the game's final 3:53, while CSAS scored the final six points.
CSAS will play for the championship tonight at 7.
"Either team we play, Baylor or Meigs (County), played in the state tournament last year," CSAS coach Zach Dragoo said. "We will get a good test one way or the other."
Contact Garrett Tumlin at sports@timesfreepress.com.