By Blake Deshazo
The Selma Times-Journal

The Selma Lady Saints dominated in overtime to beat the Northridge Jaguars 56-46 in a sub-regional game Monday night.

The Saints squandered a late five point lead in the fourth quarter, but Jacquetta Dailey saved the day in overtime. Dailey scored six points in the extra session as Selma outscored the Jaguars 14-4 in overtime to move on the central regional in Montgomery.

“I’m proud for the kids, I’m proud for the community, the school [and] the student body,” said Selma head coach Anthony Harris. “I’m very proud of the young ladies. They fought hard. I told them before we came out there might have been some questions with this group. They’re young and inexperienced, but they can play ball.”

Big shots from Areyana Williams, who finished the game with 21 points, gave Selma control and a 13-8 lead at the end of the first.

The Saints looked to be pulling away to start the second quarter, but turnovers plagued them and let the Jaguars cut the lead to just one, 21-20.

“Defensively, we kept hoping to get a stop because our offense was struggling to score,” said Northridge head coach Joshua Jones. “The key was we were trying to stop them and get some steals to give us some easy points for our defense.”

Harris said he lost his team a little bit, but he got them back on the same page to end the half.

“I called a couple of timeouts and told them to gather themselves,” Harris said. “We turned it over four times straight. They made a big run on us.”

As the second half got under way, the Saints went on an 8-0 run to take a 29-20 lead. It was well into the third quarter before the Jaguars put any points on the board.

Shameka Tubbs kept Northridge in the game with six points in the fourth. With just over 30 seconds left, Northridge’s Kyra Davis tied the game at 42. When Selma couldn’t answer, the Saints headed to overtime for the second straight game.

“The team that reaches down within, those are the ones that are going to come out on top,” Harris said. “I told them you can’t look back. No more overtimes. Let’s win this one and get out of here.”

Dailey came up huge, scoring six straight to break a close overtime game wide open. The Saints will play Valley in the central regional semifinals at Alabama State University’s Dunn-Oliver Acadome Thursday at 6 p.m.