WEST POINT – Elizabeth Hill's presence in the third quarter was vital to a big 72-59 victory for the Cold Springs Lady Eagles Tuesday night, handing the West Point Lady Warriors their first loss of the season.
Hill, a 5'11" freshman, delivered 19 of the Lady Eagles' 22 points in the third, helping them overtake the Lady Warriors after they trailed for the entire first half and halfway into the third stanza.
"It was too much Hill," West Point coach John Welborn said afterwards. “She is hard to defend."
Winning coach Tammy West pointed out the value of Hill. "She took over the game. We gave her the freedom she needed to do what she did on offense. She didn't look like a freshman that I have ever seen play in a game like this."
For the first half, undefeated West Point was sharp on offense, scoring 23 in the opening quarter and adding 17 by the second to produce 40 points at intermission.
The Lady Warriors did it by connecting on 15 shots in the opening half, six from downtown.
Two minutes into the second quarter, a field goal by Miriam Oldacre had West Point with its largest advantage of the night at 10 points, 31-21.
With 0:50 to play in the half, free throws from Lexi Shadix sent the home side to a 40-32 lead. But Cold Springs was able to get it down to 40-36 when Hill hit a jumper in the land and Sadie Terry knocked down a pair of free throws in the final 37 seconds.
Emme Willoughby got a 3-pointer to go at 6:25 of the third period and Cold Springs was down 42-39.
Then it was time for Hill to take over the offense. The transfer from John Carroll in Birmingham delivered back-to-back treys that sent them on top for the first time at 45-44 with 4:37 to play in the third.
After a 3-point play by Oldacre got the game even at 47-47, Hill tossed in another trey and the Lady Eagles never trailed the rest of the night.
The score at the end of the third was 58-52 Cold Springs on a Hill field goal before the horn sounded.
Coach West had a pair of big threes from Neely Ellison early in the fourth to extend the lead to double digits. West Point went better than four minutes without scoring and the Lady Eagles had the game in hand at that time, leading 70-56 with under 4:00 to play.
Hill had her season best in a Cold Springs uniform with 32 points, 21 in the second half and 19 in the third quarter. Willoughby produced 17, Camryn Crider scored 11, Ellison finished with six, Terry and Kinley Campbell scored three. The Lady Eagles moved to 8-0 on the season.
For West Point, now 10-1, Oldacre tossed in 18, Bailee Yearwood and Olivia Ball scored 11, Shadix 10, Mackenize Carter eight and Lillie Burdette one.
Cold Springs is at Winston County for the 2A, Area 13 opener Friday with West Point hosting Hayden at Jim Boyd Gym for a 5A, Area 12 game.
Cold Springs 59, West Point 55:
West Point got caught in another game that went down to the wire. This time it was Cold Springs to come from behind, using an 11-2 run in the final 4:00 to rally and send the Warriors to their sixth consecutive loss.
The Warriors were ahead 14-10 in the first period when the Eagles stormed back with a 23-point second quarter and led at halftime, 33-28.
The see-saw battle continued in the third with the Warriors getting shots to fall and leading the Eagles 46-44.
A 3-pointer from the left baseline by Cameron Moore with 4:10 remaining pushed West Point to a 53-48 advantage.
Then Blake Wood took over the scoring chores for Cold Springs. Wood scored six in a row, including a pair of free throws with 1:51 to go that lifted the Eagles back in front at 54-53.
He iced the Eagles' third win of the season when he made both from the line to put the score at 59-55 with four seconds remaining. West Point had cut it to 57-55 on a shot by Alex Hernandez with 0:05 left, but had to foul and was out of time outs following the made free throws from Wood.
Wood scored 16 points for the Eagles and was eight of eight at the line. The Eagles made 19 of 23 free throws on the evening. Jesse Lee netted 16, Eli Hamby accounted for 15, Hunter McClendon, Mason Harris and Fisher Willoughby scored four each.
Leading the Warriors was Kolton Sapp with 19, Brandon Farley and Colby Sullins seven each, Hernandez six, Dalton White five, Moore three and Rylan Jones, Hunter Persall, Noah Gammon and Michael Keller two each.
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