By By BRUCE HIXON – Sports Editor
Although they may not have given up many surges, the one they allowed early in the game cost the W.S. Neal Lady Blue Eagles a 52-38 setback to the host Flomaton Lady Hurricanes in Friday's regular season finale.
Flomaton (22-6) built most of its lead in the first quarter when it jumped out to a 15-7 advantage. The Lady Hurricanes slowly widened that lead to 32-23 by halftime and 45-31 through three quarters.
Shekinah Adams led the Lady Blue Eagles (6-20) with 10 points.
W.S. Neal will open up play at the Class 3A Area 1 Tournament at T.R. Miller when it takes on the top-seeded host school Thursday at 7 p.m.
At Flomaton
W.S. Neal 7 16 8 7 – 38
Flomaton 15 17 13 7 – 52
W.S. NEAL (2FG-3FG-FT-TP) Adams 2-2-0-10; Andrews 2-1-1-8; Likely 2-1-0-7; Matthews 2-0-1-5; Gulley 2-0-0-4; Elliott 1-0-0-2; Smith 0-0-2-2 (Totals: 11-4-4-38)
FLOMATON (2FG-3FG-FT-TP) Williams 9-0-2-20; T. Cayson 3-1-4-13; Lisenby 2-2-2-12; Harden 2-0-0-4; Conrad 1-0-1-3 (Totals: 17-3-9-52)
Lady Eagles lose home finale
One of W.S. Neal's best defensive performances of the season went for naught, as a lack of offense cost the Lady Blue Eagles a 26-18 loss to the visiting Pleasant some Lady Eagles Tuesday.
The Lady Blue Eagles had a 5-2 lead with more than six minutes gone on a bucket from inside by Jolesia Likely and a three-pointer by Shekinah Adams, but W.S. Neal managed just one free throw over the next 11 minutes.
While Pleasant Home (11-10) hardly had an offensive outburst during that time frame, it did string together a 14-1 run to move ahead 16-6.
Brittany Ward ignited Pleasant Home's surge with a pair of three-pointers, while Jessica Johnson had a bucket and a free throw late in the first half to build that advantage.
Although W.S. Neal was able to end its long field goal drought when Jessica Smith connected almost three minutes into the third quarter, Pleasant Home was able to widen its lead up to a game high gap of 20-8 when Erin Byrd scored off an offensive rebound with three minutes left in the third quarter.
Although its offense was stuck in the deep freeze for most of the game, W.S. Neal nearly had enough spark in the fourth quarter to overtake the visitors.
An offensive rebound bucket by Smith, a field goal and free throw by Likely and a three-pointer by Tierra Andrews trimmed Pleasant Home's lead to just 22-18 with 2:49 left.
Not only did the Lady Blue Eagles fail to get any closer after that point, they never scored again.
At W.S. Neal
Pleasant Home 7 9 4 6 – 26
W.S. Neal 5 1 4 8 – 18
PLEASANT HOME (2FG-3FG-FT-TP) Ward 1-2-0-8; Byrd 2-0-1-5; Johns 2-0-1-5; Wiggins 2-0-0-4; Lee 2-0-0-4 (Totals: 9-2-2-26)
W.S. NEAL (2FG-3FG-FT-TP) Likely 2-01-5; Adams 0-1-1-4; Smith 2-0-0-4; Andrews 0-1-0-3; Gulley 1-0-0-2 (Totals: 5-2-2-18)