Marvaysha Seals knew it was over.
The West Lowndes senior guard could only watch as teammate Nenah Young drove to the basket with just over two minutes to go in Friday’s MHSAA Class 1A second-round playoff game against Lumberton. An official’s whistle blew as Young was bumped by a Lumberton defender as she hoisted up a shot, and even Young got a second to watch from behind the backboard as the ball went up against the glass.
Then it dropped.
Young jumped on the spot and clapped emphatically, and West Lowndes’ home crowd screamed in exhilaration. The shot pushed the lead from 10 to 12, and even before Young knocked down the ensuing free throw, Seals and her teammates were convinced: Victory was 124 seconds away.
“That had everybody excited,” junior Tydajasha Hood said. “We knew we had the game.”
Young’s three-point play was West Lowndes’ knockout blow as the Panthers remained undefeated, stayed alive in the postseason and delivered a 56-45 home win over Lumberton (17-9) on Friday in Columbus. West Lowndes (24-0) will play a strong Simmons team (24-4) in the Class 1A quarterfinals at 4 p.m. Thursday at Pearl River Community College.
“It feels great knowing that we’ve worked so hard for this season, and we’re accomplishing our goals game by game,” Seals said.
She scored 10 points for West Lowndes, eclipsed only by Hood’s 15-point performance Friday. Hood poured in seven points in the second quarter as the Panthers pulled away going into the half.
“She had an awesome game,” Seals said. “With her on the court, we’re the dynamic duo that we’ve always talked about.”
Hood was everywhere as West Lowndes turned a 14-13 lead after one quarter of play into a 32-17 halftime lead. In addition to hitting a 3 and finishing at the rim twice, she made her impact known on defense as the Panthers tightened the vise. Two possessions after going coast to coast for a layup, Hood flew back to knock the ball away from Lumberton’s Kirsten Joseph on what looked like a sure score.
West Lowndes coach Takeea Bozeman summed up the second quarter succinctly: “We just kept our composure, we were patient, and we played good defense.”
But Bozeman and her Panthers had to work hard to finish off Lumberton in what Hood called West Lowndes’ most competitive game all season. After dispatching Stringer 83-19 in Tuesday’s first-round game, Bozeman’s team was in for a lot more of a fight.
Lumberton cut the lead down to eight points twice in the third quarter and got as close as six in the fourth, making a surge Bozeman expected from her team’s opponent.
“Good teams do that,” she said. “They may be down, but they find a way to stick around and stay in the game.”
But tempers boiled over after Lumberton was called for a hard foul with 4 minutes, 44 seconds to go while trailing by six. Ensuing technical fouls gave Seals three free throws and gave West Lowndes momentum; the host Panthers scored the next six points to push their lead back to 12.
Less than two minutes later, Young muscled through contact for what West Lowndes knew was the clinching basket.
As Lumberton fouled to extend the game, though, the Panthers went cold at the foul line. Young’s make preceded a string of 11 consecutive missed free throws by West Lowndes within the final 90 seconds.
So it’s not hard to guess what the Panthers will be working on in practice tomorrow, though Bozeman said the problem is likely fixable.
“I think there were a lot of nerves,” Bozeman said. “It’s not something that we can’t deal with.”
Despite the poor foul shooting, West Lowndes earned an 11-point win that Bozeman called a “huge sigh of relief.” Though she knows her team has a tough test against Simmons on Thursday, the coach is ecstatic for the stellar season the Panthers have already had — no matter how it ends.
“I’m excited to make it this far,” Bozeman said.
Theo DeRosa reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @Theo_DeRosa.
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