Lady Panthers overcome early deficit to advance to elite eight

Published 11:15 pm Tuesday, February 15, 2022

CHULA – It’s not always how a team starts a game, as Tiftarea Academy’s Lady Panthers learned Tuesday night. The way a team finishes is even more important.

Tiftarea moved on to the elite eight of the GISA Class AAA basketball tournament, defeating Westfield 43-32. The end was a 22-point swing from where they were at the start of the second quarter.

Westfield not just outscored the Lady Panthers over the first eight minutes; Tiftarea was unable to pick up a point until Livi Mullis scored on an assist from Elaine Mercer with 6:17 to go in the second.

It was 11-0 at the end of the first quarter, but head coach Rob Flick and his team did not panic.

“A lot of nerves,” he said about the way the opening stanza went. Fortunately, they settled down. “They know they can make a deep run … we got it right after that. We picked it up a notch.”

Westfield had the 11-point lead, but it was never a runaway. Two minutes after Mullis put them on the scoreboard, Elli Bryan drove to the basket to make it 11-6.

“We just came out a little flat,” said Flick. He thinks they may have also been pushing too hard because of the home crowd. Tuesday was the first time Tiftarea hosted a state playoff game since 2018.

The comeback took much longer to complete, however. The Lady Hornets were not rolling over. Sadie Knight scored five straight points by herself to get the advantage back to 10, 16-6.

By the time halftime rolled around, the Lady Panthers had halved that to 16-11, a Bryan three-pointer with 38 seconds left being the big blow.

Emmy Dehem opened scoring in the second half, but their seven-point lead soon dwindled and never reached those heights again.

Livi Mullis assisted Ali Strenth, then scored herself on an offensive rebound to close the score to a single point, 18-17. The squads seesawed the rest of the quarter.

The Lady Hornets hit three free throws, briefly building on their lead (to five points, 24-19). Mullis made an underhand shot to close out the period and, at this point, the momentum had built so much that it was only a matter of time before the locals completely took over.

Mullis had a massive game for Tiftarea and it was only natural that she flipped the score for good.

At 5:39 and Tiftarea trailing 26-23, she went to the line for two free shots. Mullis made the first and missed the second, but Westfield was called for a lane violation.

She missed the second chance as well, but the Lady Panthers boxed out so well that Mullis not only rebounded the ball, but was able to shoot. A Lady Hornet bopped her on that attempt, but Mullis muscled it through the net. She made the free throw as well.

Tiftarea now led for the first time, 27-26. They were not giving it up.

Jolee Paulk made a three by her bench at 5:07 and the floodgates opened.

Strenth scored on a drive. Paulk stole the ball and then made a circus shot layup. When Grace Odom and Bryan added points, it had turned into a 15-0 run over 2:35.

Down 12, Westfield tried to find some late magic, but was only able to get a couple of free throws over the next 90 seconds.

Isabel Fernandez’s free shot pushed the lead to its apex at 42-28 with 50 seconds remaining.

Flick was more than happy to move on to the next round, no matter how it happened. He quoted the late, legendary coach Jim Valvano: “Survive and advance.”

Mullis scored 13 points and Bryan netted 12 for the Lady Panthers. Odom and Strenth contributed 6 each.

Westfield was led by Emmy Dehem’s 11 and Knight’s 10 points.

Tiftarea moves on to play Holy Spirit Prep at John Milledge Academy on Friday, a game that will start around 7 p.m.

Holy Spirit, the No. 2 seed in the tournament to Tiftarea’s No. 7, defeated Creekside Christian Tuesday, 74-14.

“It’ll be tough,” said Flick, “But we’ll see what we’ve got.”