For a while it looked as though poor fourth-quarter free-throw shooting was going to undermine a lead Howard’s girls had owned practically throughout their District 6-AA high school basketball tournament opener against Tyner. Then with 11.5 seconds to go, Markia Chappell went to the line and calmly dropped in two free throws that proved to be the cushion the Lady Hustlin’ Tigers needed.
Tyner’s Dasheta Stevens made an 18-foot jump shot with three seconds to play, but the Lady Rams were out of timeouts and the clock ran out on Howard’s 49-47 victory at Tyner.
Howard (8-12) advances to Saturday’s semifinals at East Ridge, where it will play regular-season champion Red Bank at 3:30 p.m. The Lady Tigers also are guaranteed a berth in the Region 3 tournament at East Hamilton. Tyner ended its season 9-13.
Howard never trailed and the only tie was at 4. The Lady Tigers went on an 11-2 run from there and led by at least six points the rest of the first half.
Nuquella Robinson and Myia Lee made the first two baskets of the fourth quarter and pushed the advantage to 42-30 — the largest at the time. Then Howard proceded to miss 10 of 11 free throws, including all three front ends of bonus situations.
“We’ve missed a lot of free throws this year,” Howard coach Dexter Bell said. “We stayed focused and still played defense, but we almost let it get away.”
Despite the woes at the line, when Chappell penetrated the defense and dished to Robinson for a field goal underneath with 2:04 left, Howard was still up by double digits. Tyner made a late charge and Alexxus Sturkey’s only points came on a three-point play with 23.9 seconds remaining that pulled the Lady Rams within two.
Among the key factors in the game was Howard’s ability to convert in close while the Lady Rams struggled in that area. Bell has seen his team lose that battle before.
“This was kind of indicative of our team,” said Tyner coach Terrie Parks, who had no seniors and dressed out nine freshmen. “We played up sometimes, and we had spells where we couldn’t make a shot. But we would still dig deep and hustle. Honestly, a lot of shots we missed are ones we normally make. It’s different in a regular-season game. You usually don’t have as much pressure.”
Besides the late misses, the foul situation looked as though it might work against the Lady Tigers in another way. Two starters got called for their fourth fouls in the third quarter.
“I was very nervous, but we have confidence in our bench,” Bell said. “They really stepped up for us.”
Lee totaled 20 points for Howard. Lakera Taylor added 12 and Robinson contributed 11.
Much of the Lady Rams’ offense came from Brittany McKinney creating turnovers and converting afterward. She had 16 of their 20 points at halftime and finished with 24.