MAY – After escaping with a one-point victory at Cross Plains on Jan. 15, the No. 8 May Lady Tigers maintained their share of first place with No. 9 Eula in the District 13-A standings by coasting past the Lady Buffs in Tuesday’s rematch, 50-35.
May head coach Derek Stevens cited “intensity and preparation” as the keys to the convincing victory.
“I take pride in preparation and I thought I had them prepped pretty well the first time, but the way the schedule worked out Cross Plains was able to prep for us for about a week and a half,” Stevens said. “I felt like I was good for prep, but obviously it wasn’t enough the first time. We just didn’t shoot well over there, they had a good game plan and threw a lot of stuff at us. But I feel like we were way more prepared this time and played better ball.”
The Lady Tigers (19-3, 8-1) drained eight three-pointers overall, including seven in the first half as May built a 30-17 halftime lead. Reese Chambers led all scorers with 22 points, aided by six three-pointers, including five in the first two quarters.
“I preached all week that we had to shoot outside shots and make our threes and they did,” Stevens said. “Shooting is all about being mentally strong and having confidence and I felt like they had confidence when they pulled the trigger tonight.”
Brianna Steele chipped in nine points, converting one three-pointer, while Lexi Fox contributed five points and opened the scoring with a trey. Hannah McKenzie also chipped in five points followed by Roberta Robinette with four, Charity Baker with three and Melanie Murphree with two points.
Addison Long and River Bradley led Cross Plains (14-10, 6-3) with nine points apiece.
Leading 11-6 with 1:14 left in the first period, the next three May baskets were all treys – two by Chambers and one by Steele – to boost the advantage to 20-8 just 57 seconds into the second quarter.
Cross Plains crept with 25-17 with 48 seconds to go in the half, but Chambers drained another trey and Fox added two free throws in the closing seconds as the Lady Tigers carried a 13-point lead into the locker room at halftime.
With the first five points of the second half, the Lady Tigers’ lead peaked at 18 points, 35-17, following a trey and two free throws from Chambers. The remainder of the second half, May focused more on the inside game.
Leading 38-27 after three quarters, May saw its lead slip to single digits, 42-33, with 4:23 to go. But Cross Plains failed to score for the next 3:41, while the Lady Tigers received a pair of buckets from Steele and two free throws from Robinette to stretch the lead to 48-33 with just 48 seconds left.
May’s victory occurred despite not being at full strength as Korlei King continues to be quarantine, which allowed Baker and Amanda Harrell to play critical minutes in King’s absence.
“I felt like everybody that suited up tonight did something good to help us get this win,” Stevens said. “The key going forward for us is to just be strong, not only mentally but physically. We’re not big, we’re more of a speed team. Teams will try and feed the post but we just have to play real fast defense and help the bigs when we need to. And if we just shoot like we shot tonight, we’ll be fine.”
