CLASS 3A

Charleston’s defense gets job done

— Charleston may not have gotten the kind of scoring it would have liked Wednesday, but the Lady Tigers aren’t about to apologize for it.

Morgan Prescott scored 18 points and the Lady Tigers made just enough plays over the final five minutes to hold off Centerpoint 37-32 in the first round of the Class 3A girls state tournament at Riverview High School.

“It definitely wasn’t one of our best performances offensively, that’s for sure,” Charleston Coach Jason Rucker said. “Both teams played hard, but I don’t think either of us hit shots like we normally do.

“The name of the game this time of year is survive and move on but, boy, did it seem like there was a lid on the rim.”

Charleston (21-9) will take on eStem at 7:30 tonight. EStem defeated Rivercrest in the opening round Tuesday.

Megan Samuel scored a team-high 11 points for Centerpoint (22-8), which led for nearly three-fourths of the game before withering down the stretch. Brooke Wrightand Laiken Sorrells finished with six points each for the Lady Knights.

Both teams had trouble getting into any kind of offensive groove for the majority of the game, with Charleston enduring the brunt of it in the first half. The Lady Tigers didn’t score their first basket of the game until Paityn McLaughlin’s runner with 2:57 left in the first half.

Centerpoint didn’t fair much better but managed to take an 18-15 lead into halftime on the strength of Samuel’s seven points.

ELKINS 44, DREW CENTRAL 43

Skyler Johnson scored a team-high 19 points to help Elkins hold off Drew Central to advance to the quarterfinals.

Andrea Wilson added eight points for Elkins, which led 22-19 at the half and 38-31 heading into the fourth quarter.

Aaliyah Block scored 22 points to lead Drew Central, which was just 10 of 22 from the free-throw line. Cierra Gardner added nine points and Kaci Milton had eight.

PARIS 61, MCGEHEE 56, OT

Christa Huber scored 24 of her gamehigh 30 points after halftime to push Paris to a come-from-behind victory.

Michalli Tencleve added 14 points for Paris, which sent the game into overtime with a three-pointer with 30.8 seconds left. Paris trailed 31-19 at the half but outscored McGehee 42-25 in the second half.

Shakyla Begnaud scored 19 points for McGehee, while Niesha Henry and Monique Perkins scored 13 and 12, respectively.

Sports, Pages 21 on 02/28/2013

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