It isn't often when a team comes into Jerry Jones Gym and pushes around the Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe Lady Warriors, but that's what happened for nearly three-fourths of Saturday's GHSA Class AAA first-round basketball game.
Creekview, an unheralded fourth seed from Region 7, led Region 6 champ and sixth-ranked LFO by 10 points late in the third quarter before a Jasmain Carey-led rally propelled the cold-shooting Lady Warriors to a sloppy 35-33 win. LFO will host the winner of Saturday night's Carver-Atlanta and Morgan County game Wednesday in the second round.
"We still have four games to go before we reach our goal, and I don't care if the games are ugly or pretty, one-point win or by 20, as long as we win I'm OK," LFO coach Dewayne Watkins said. "The bottom line is we're very fortunate to have another shot at it."
Neither team could find its shooting touch early. In fact, total points in the first half (24) barely outnumbered the combined turnovers (23), and LFO could claim only eight of those points.
"We needed some leadership," senior Carey said of the team's early problems. "When we're struggling, we hold our heads down and try to get it back at once. What we needed was some patience. They came out and showed us up. We weren't prepared for how strong they were. We had to get more physical with them because they were outplaying us."
The Creekview lead was 24-14 with 3:37 remaining in the third period when Carey and the Lady Warriors woke up. Following two Michelle Morgan free throws, Carey powerfully drove the lane, scored and was fouled for a three-point play. After a defensive stop, senior guard Shelby Robertson stepped back and hit a 3-pointer to cut the lead to two.
After another defensive stop, Jessica White made one of two free throws, and Jacqueline Schadeck rebounded the miss and scored to give LFO its first lead since the game was 2-0. The LFO run continued well into the final period, with Carey scoring eight of her team-high 14 points in the perod's first 4:32.
Her layup gave the Lady Warriors a 34-26 lead.
"She's been doing that all year long," Watkins said of his star, who added 13 rebounds and five blocked shots. "When we need big buckets, she's always there."
The Grizzlies (18-12) weren't finished, though. A 7-0 run over the next three minutes cut the margin to one before a Robertson free throw with seven seconds left. After a timeout, Creekview point guard Jerrah Baker drove the floor, made a quick cut left at the free-throw line and put up a short shot that bounced off, with Carey fittingly grabbing the game's final rebound.
"Once we got up, I tried to get us to settle down and go to a semi-delay game to protect the lead, but we were still trying to attack," Watkins said. "That's not very smart and they took advantage of it.
"We have three rules: Play hard, play smart and have fun. I thought we were getting better at playing smart, but obviously we still have some work to do."