Lady Saints fall to Jeff Davis in Central Regional final

By George L. Jones

The Selma Times-Journal

MONTGOMERY – There would be no upset for Selma Friday.

The Lady Saints committed nine first-quarter turnovers and allowed Jeff Davis to score the first 13 points in a 72-43 win in the Central Regional final at the Alabama State University Acadome.

Jeff Davis guard and tournament MVP Latonda Bruce had eight points and eight rebounds in the first half and ended the game with 19 and 12. Lavonda McCall also had a double-double with 15 points and 11 rebounds. Courtney Ward had 17 points, seven rebounds and four steals, and Cassie Moore scored 12.

“I’ll be honest. We dug a hole for ourselves in the first half,” Selma coach Anthony Harris said. “It’s hard to come back on a team of Jeff Davis’ caliber. They’re the defending state champions, and they played like it today.”

The Volunteers (32-3) shut down Selma’s leading scorer, Erica Lumpkin, holding her to six points. Freshman Keisha Moore came off the bench to lead the Saints with 18 points. Ashley Grimes added seven points and seven rebounds.

After the battles these teams have had this season, the latest matchup was being built up as potentially the best one.

But the way the game went was more than okay with the Volunteers.

“The girls came out with good intensity, made some shots and jumped on them early,” Jeff Davis coach Tim Miller said. “This group of seniors, it’s their third year in a row making it to the regional championship game. We set goals before this year. No team in Jeff Davis history has ever won back-to-back state championships.”

Selma (26-7) settled down and turned the ball over just once in the second quarter.

Still, that didn’t stop the Volunteers from going on a 7-2 run to start the period and taking a 31-6 lead with 2:50 left.

Moore hadn’t scored a point until the third quarter, when she put in 11 and hit three 3-pointers.