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.”