Dallas County pulls out 70-63 win
Published 12:32 am Wednesday, February 4, 2009
For the second time in as many games, Dallas County pulled a win out of the fire with a 70-63 win over Francis Marion on Tuesday.
Trailing 58-52 with 4:45 left in the contest, a DeAndre McIntyre putback of a missed Keymia Harrell free throw cut the deficit to four, and Dallas County coach Willie Moore talked a timeout.
“I told our guys if we wanted to win the ballgame, we had to limit them to one shot,” said Moore.
The Hornets did better than that, as the Rams prevented themselves from getting to the basket.
Following a McIntyre jump shot, a Jerome Smith turnover gave the ball back to the Hornets. Brandon Holmes hit a layup to knot the score at 58. Frank Crews followed with a steal and dunk to put the Hornets ahead 60-58, and they never looked back.
Three possessions later, a McIntyre steal and layup capped a 15-0 Dallas County run, putting the Hornets ahead 66-58 with 1:37 left.
“We played hard for three and a half quarters,” said Francis Marion coach Lee Hollis. “It was pretty much a situation where we lost focus. We’ve got to play 32 minutes.”
A Smith 3-pointer and Jamarcus Billingsley steal and layup made it a 3-point game with 38 seconds left. But McIntyre and Brandon Holmes made their free throws down the stretch to put the game on ice.
“We just didn’t play for the full 32 minutes,” said Moore. “At this stage of the season, it’ll bite us.”
McIntyre led the Hornets (22-5) with 20 points and Andrew Mahan added 15.
Billingley paced Francis Marion (11-11) with 18 points. Smith added 17 and Ladarius Tabb finished with 11.