Newton girls fall at Lake

Robbie Robertson/Publisher
The Newton Record

NEWTON December 19, 2007 02:54 pm

— It wasn’t exactly the week that Newton coach Crandal Porter had hoped for.
After knocking off Philadelphia the week before to take early control of the Division 5-2A race, the Lady Tigers lost two straight last week and evened its record at 6-6 on the season.
On the week, Newton lost 66-62 to Class 5A and undefeated Columbus and then lost in a mild upset to Lake 52-33 on Friday night.
The Lady Tigers traveled to Union on Monday night and will now be off until Thursday, Dec. 27 when they will participate in the Bay Springs Tournament.
“I thought we played pretty well against Columbus,” Porter said. “Except for those last few minutes. We were up by three with a minute to go and turned the ball over three straight times. They got up in our face and we just didn’t do a good job of handling the pressure.”
Against Columbus, Newton trailed 28-27 at the half before outshot the Lady Falcons 18-14 in the third for a 45-42 lead. Then in the fourth, the Lady Falcons outscored Newton 24-17 to take the win and stay unbeaten.
Tineshia Evans had 22 points to lead Newton while Tiara Buckley added 20 points. Shey Nichols added seven.

Lake 52, Newton 33
The Lady Hornets of Lake outscored Newton in every period as their pressure defense forced Newton into numerous turnovers.
“We turned it over an awful lot and just didn’t play well at all,” Porter said. “Our inexperience at the point really showed for one thing. They pressed us man-to-man, full court and I bet we turned it over 30 times. Nobody has really tried to press us because we have done such a good job breaking it and getting layups in the last in our press offense. We have some talent, we are just inexperienced at the point and just have to work at getting better there.”
After after outscoring Newton 15-12 in the first, the Lady Hornets continued to apply pressure and outscored Newton 11-7 in the second, 9-7 in the third and 17-7 in the fourth to take the win.
Lake was led by Yolanda Jones with 22 points while Montonia Butler had eight points. Laurin Bradshow and Kirsti Donald had seven points apiece.
Tiara Buckley led Newton with 18 points.