The Shadow
The 1-2 punch packed from Robert E. Lee’s Angela Mickens and Kemani Crawford was just too much for the Alleghany girls to overcome as the Leemen advanced to tonight’s championship game of the Alcova Mortgage Cougar Classic with a 73-34 win over the Lady Mountaineers.
Crawford led all scorers with a game-high 27 points and added 10 rebounds to finish with a double-double, while Mickens – a James Madison signee – finished with 22 points, eight rebounds, seven steals and five assists.
Paige Irvine, Kelsey Brown and Kayla Buchanan led Alleghany with six points each in the loss.
Brown’s coast-to-coast layup knotted the game at two just 50 seconds into the contest, but the Leemen would go on a 17-0 run over the next five minutes to take a 19-2 lead.
Irvine’s three-point play broke a five minute scoreless drought for the Lady Mountaineers as they trailed 25-7 after one quarter.
A Mickens steal and layup followed by a Crawford stickback got the second quarter scoring started and Buchanan’s three-ball with 4:55 to play in the half was Alleghany’s first bucket of the quarter and made the score 32-10.
Freshman Savannah Beard came off the bench to slice her way through the Lee defense and dish to Kristian Wiseman for an easy two, but Lee had build a 20-point (34-14) lead by then.
Robert E. Lee led 42-16 at the break. Crawford scored 21 points and grabbed nine of her 10 rebounds in the first half, while Mickens added 17 points, six steals and four assists.
Alleghany committed 22 of their 30 turnovers in the opening half.
Irvine got the third quarter scoring started with a baseline jumper, but the Leemen would outscore the Lady Mountaineers 20-6 in the frame to extend their lead to 62-22 heading into the final quarter.
Beth Mason’s dish to Brown with 4:55 to play made the score 62-29 as the Lee reserves saw plenty of floor time in the final quarter and hung on for the 73-34 win.
“Despite the score, I’m actually happy with the way we played tonight,” said Alleghany coach Danny Keene. “We got to do some of the things I wanted to do and actually had some stops on the defensive end of the floor, we just couldn’t rebound the basketball.”
Robert E. Lee won the battle on the board, 39-29.
“They are a team that is where you want to be,” stated Keene. “You’ve got to work hard to get to that level and I think my girls saw that tonight. The only way to get there is to play man-to-man defense and take advantage of your opportunities.
“While I thought we did okay defensively, we missed some early layups and did not do a good job at the free throw line tonight,” added Keene.
The Lady Mountaineers connected on just 9-of-20 attempts from the charity stripe.
Alleghany (1-3) will play Eastern Montgomery, a 56-21 loser to Covington in the first semifinal, in tonight’s 6 p.m. consolation game.
Lee (4-3) will play Covington (2-4) in tonight’s 7:45 p.m. championship game.
