HANCEVILLE, Ala. – After earning a win over Sulligent in the Sweet 16 last week, the Cold Springs Lady Eagles were back on the court at Tom Drake Coliseum Monday morning to face Decatur Heritage in the Northwest Regional finals. After falling behind early, the Eagles rallied to make it a 4-point game at halftime but couldn’t keep pace with Decatur Heritage in the second half and Cold Springs’ season came to an end with a 61-41 loss in the Elite Eight.
The Lady Eagles outscored Decatur Heritage 14-6 in the second quarter to cut into the lead before halftime, but they weren’t able to hit enough perimeter shots to keep up in the second half.
“We rebounded the ball well; I think we only gave them one shot in that quarter, so I felt like that was a big difference,” Cold Springs Head Coach Tammy West said. “We hit a few shots during that quarter and played really hard. It was just every time we’d make a run, we’d miss some open shots and once we got settled down, we couldn’t hit enough. We were 4 for 24 and out of those 24 I’m going to say most of them were uncontested,” We did some really nice things offensively, some things we haven’t done all year before, but defensively there were just so many weapons from Decatur Heritage that you had to worry about. That just made it really hard for us to slow them down.”
Three-pointers from Ella Dickerson and Hollyn Bruer put the Lady Eagles behind Decatur Heritage 7-6 early in the opening period. Dickerson hit a pair of free throws to trim the lead to 12-8 later in the first quarter but Decatur Heritage built a 20-8 lead by the start of the second.
Cold Springs battled back in the second quarter. Kenady Graves laid one in to make it a 22-10 game and after drawing a foul on a three-point attempt, Dickerson knocked down all three from the line to cut the lead to 24-13. Dickerson drilled another three to make it 24-16 and Macie Huffstutler added a pair of free throws to hold the lead to 26-18 later in the period. After Dickerson split a pair of free throws, Graves scored in the paint to make it a 26-21 game and Dickerson tacked on one more free throw in the final second of the first half to bring the lead down to 26-22 at halftime.
Cold Springs had a tough time getting much going on the offensive end in the third quarter. Decatur Heritage scored 13 unanswered points to start the period, stretching its lead to 39-22 at one point. Huffstutler knocked down a three with around a minute remaining in the third, but the Eagles trailed Decatur Heritage 41-25 going into the fourth.
Cold Springs didn’t go down quietly in the final frame. A pair of baskets from Huffstutler and Dickerson made it a 50-33 game midway through the fourth quarter. Bruer and Dickerson each split a pair of free throws to make it 52-35 later in the period and Paizley Whitlow laid one in and Kaydance Williams sank a couple free throws to continue chipping away but it wasn’t enough to overcome the Decatur Heritage lead and Cold Springs’ season came to an end with a 61-41 loss in the Elite Eight.
Dickerson led the Lady Eagles with 18 points and seven rebounds in the loss. Huffstutler posted nine points and eight rebounds and Graves and Bruer each added four points.
Ella Dickerson and Kenady Graves also earned Northwest Regional All-Tournament team honors.
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