Coming back from a 13-point halftime deficit, the Bradwell Institute girls’ basketball team surged in the second half to beat rival Liberty County, 41-37, in the first round of the Joe Greene Tournament at Beach High School on Tuesday afternoon.
“It was just a horrible game for us,” Liberty County coach Carolyn Kelly said. “We quit playing after being up at halftime. I don’t know how many actual turnovers, but I would guess it would have to be close to 16 or 17. We just didn’t play very good defense.”
The teams played each other two weeks ago, when Liberty
(1-1) dominated Bradwell (1-0) in a scrimmage Nov. 8.
“Even though they beat us in the scrimmage, we still played decent defense, but we were searching for our offense,” Bradwell Institute coach Faye Baker said. “We have some new faces this year and we have been collectively, coaches and players alike, looking for our offense. Tonight we started to execute the offense a little better.”
Liberty controlled the pace in the first half, though momentum started to shift late in the second quarter when Bradwell’s Brittany Terrell secured a charge. The Lady Tigers added a pair of free throws to trail Liberty, 21-8, at the half.
Bradwell’s transition game, guided by point guard Shaquioa Crockett, took over in the second half. Crockett and guard Latisha Frasier combined for 13 points in the third quarter.
The Lady Tigers kept hacking away at Liberty’s lead and cut it to 28-25 in the final seconds of the third period with a trey in the corner from Leitia Leiatua.
Bradwell took its first lead on a layup from Symone May in the fourth. The Lady Panthers were a meager 2 for 12 from the free throw line in the final period and went through a three-minute scoring drought.
Fraiser led BI in scoring with 13 points, and Crockett finished with 10. Diamone Johnson had 10 points for the Lady Panthers, and Tiara Howard scored seven points.
On Wednesday, BI played Beach while LCHS faced Northeast Macon in the second round of the Joe Greene Tournament.