DALTON, Ga. - The deck was stacked against Southeast Whitfield's girls' basketball team Friday night and the dealer was, well, dealing with a loaded hand.
Not only did the Lady Raiders have to host rival Northwest Whitfield on senior night with double-double machine Emileigh Earley on crutches after undergoing ACL surgery Tuesday, they had to tangle with an angry den of Lady Bruins coming off a rare Region 6-AAAA loss.
The double dose of bad news manifested itself into a 60-39 Northwest win, which set up a coin toss between the Lady Bruins and region co-leader Heritage after the game.
Northwest (19-5, 11-1) coach Greg Brown made the victory even more beneficial by winning the toss, giving his team the top seed in next week's region tournament at Southeast.
"We were upset after the Heritage game because we did not defend," Brown said of last Friday's road loss. "That's not to take anything away from them, but we did not play our brand of defense and we talked this week about getting back to that."
The Northwest defensive target was clear, especially without the inside presence of Earley. Maddie Pearson is one of the state's top scorers, but on this night the guard was manned up by the Lady Bruins' top defender, Bria Clemmons.
Though Pearson scored 14 points, she shot well under 30 percent and the Lady Raiders (16-8, 7-5) were just 2-of-20 from 3-point range.
"We wanted to get the ball out of Maddie Pearson's hands and make the other players beat us," said Clemmons, who had 13 points and three of Northwest's 14 team steals. "Our defense was much better than last week against Heritage."
Southeast, though, held an early 11-6 lead after a Pearson layup, but Northwest closed the opening period on a 7-2 run to tie at 13. The Lady Bruins opened the second quarter on a 14-2 run, with Clemmons scoring six of those points, and led 33-22 at the half.
Northwest clamped down on defense even more in the third period to take complete control. Holly Heath, who had a game-high 17 points, started the second half with a 3-pointer and followed with a quick steal and layup for a 16-point lead.
After a pair of Southeast baskets, the Lady Bruins scored the game's next 15 points, including six from Hallie Brooker, leading Brown to empty his bench.
"Once we got going and got the game sped up, we played well overall," he said. "We don't ever want to play slowly offensively or defensively, and our offense depends on our defense to get easy baskets. We are going to have to keep doing that if we want to have success next week and, hopefully, further."
Brooker added 11 points for the winners, with Sarah Sullivan scoring 10 and pulling down a game-best 13 rebounds for Southeast, which will be the tournament's No. 3 seed.
Contact Lindsey Young at lyoung@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6296. Follow him on Twitter @youngsports22.