South Side girls pull away in 2nd half of 14-AA semis

HENDERSON — In game that was closer than the final score indicated, the South Side girls basketball team pulled away from Chester County in the second half for a 50-35 win over the Eaglettes in the District 14-AA semifinals on Friday at Chester County.

“We have had a long week off, not playing since last Thursday,” said South Side coach Brent McNeal. “It took us a little while to get back into the flow.”

South Side (22-0) advances to play Lexington in the district title game on Monday at 7:30 p.m. Chester County (12-17) will play Bolivar in the consolation at 6 p.m.

Scoring for both teams was slow early, but South Side’s 5-0 run over a two-minute stretch late in the first quarter gave them the 11-4 lead with 1:25 left, finishing the first quarter with the 11-7 lead.

Despite trailing, Chester County kept it close for the entire second quarter, making a run in the final minute to tie the game at 18-18 with a buzzer-beating put-back from Savanna Naylor.

South Side came out after halftime with more pressure, forcing some turnovers to take a 26-20 lead with 4:17 left in the third quarter.

“We switched defenses at halftime,” said McNeal. “We pressed up. Offensively, it just took some time to get adjusted to this gym and get our timing down.”

South Side outscored Chester County 14-7 in the third quarter to lead 32-25.

After scoring six points in the first three quarters, Chester County’s Paige Pipkin scored all 10 of her team’s points in the fourth quarter, but those 10 points weren’t enough as South Side finished the game on an 8-2 run.

“(Pipkin) is a great player,” said McNeal. “She is going to score, so we wanted to make sure that we stopped everybody else.”

Pipkin’s 16 points led Chester County offensively, with Sydney Wilson contributing with 10 points.

Quanardra Miller led all scorers with 18 points for the Lady Hawks, with Tamia Curry adding points in the fourth quarter to finish with 13 points on the night.

Lexington 72,

Bolivar 45

The Lady Tigers (17-10) jumped out to a 21-10 lead after the first quarter and extended it to 37-22 at halftime to advance to the district title game.

Freshman Kyla Taylor was dominant in the post with a game-high 23 points with Kaitlyn Kelley, Brilee Bromley and Whitney Roberts scoring 12 points each.

Bolivar (16-11) was led by Kamya Brown and Hailey Hardaway with 14 points each.