TUNNEL HILL, Ga. — Quaneisha McCurty didn’t find her incentive so much as she had it not so subtly handed to her at halftime.
Trailing cross-county rival Dalton by 10 points at the break, Northwest Whitfield coach Margaret Stockburger helped motivate her 6-foot-5 junior post about what she felt was a lack of effort.
After failing to make a field goal in the first half, McCurty scored 15 of her team-high 17 points in the second half and grabbed seven rebounds to help the fourth-ranked Lady Bruins rally for a 63-58 Region 7-AAAA victory.
“She wasn’t going to the boards very hard, wasn’t playing defense and really just wasn’t playing physical at all,” Stockburger said of McCurty. “She has a tendency to let other teams affect her sometimes, and we knew we had to find a way to inspire her if we were going to get back into the game. We needed her if we were going to win.”
The Lady Bruins led for only 2:45 of game time, including the final two minutes. After trailing much of the night, they took the lead for good on Jordi Cook’s 3-pointer. After a Dalton turnover, McCurty extended the lead with a three-point play.
Despite struggling from the field, Northwest made up ground at the free-throw line, hitting 26 of 31 for the game, including 18 straight during a stretch in the second half.
“We practice free throws every day at practice for a long time,” said McCurty, who also had an assist on a late three-point play to put the game away. “We have competitions to see who can make the most in practice, so we’re pretty serious about free-throw shooting.
“I admit I just wasn’t myself in the first half, for some reason. But after I got my butt chewed out, I woke up, and this is a huge win for us against our biggest rival.”
Dalton opened the game by making three of its first four 3-pointers and made six in the first half, leading by as many as 13 points. Senior Shelby Whitfield hit three treys and had 17 points at halftime, but she sat out much of the third quarter, after picking up her fourth foul in the first 40 seconds, and scored just two points in the second half.
With just under five minutes remaining, the Lady Catamounts still led by nine, but they missed six of their next eight free throws.