Region 8-AAA Semi Final Report

I almost did not make it out to this. For the past 5 days I have been down and out. I've been so sick that I had decided I must stay in and get caught up on some work and I'll come out to the Regional Championship game. But when it is the last week of play in Memphis and you have the opportunity to witness 2 contests with the amount of Division 1 players, nationally ranked players and a nationally ranked team you have to sacrifice and get to the gym. It does not get any better than this in Memphis, TN.

I wasn't the only one thinking like this because Central High School was packed with a nice size group of fanatics..

The first game did not disappoint.



Fouls: 37
Free Throws: 51
Refs: Horrendous
Game: Priceless






Welcome to tournament time and the Regional Champion status is on the line.

White Station's zone gave Overton problems. Overton only had 6 points in the 1st. White Station's offense was rocking and rolling with movement but foul trouble was not far behind. Both sophomore Alicia "Red" Payne and senior Carnecia Williams had 2 fouls in the first. Senior Jasmine Robinson found the stroke behind the 3 point line and brought her team within 1 heading into halftime 17-16.

Third quarter was a dog fight ending in a 29 tie and the fourth belonged to Overton. Overton won 51-40. Jasmine Robinson lead all scorers with 18 points.

The Overton-White Station game was a good one. But the Central and Ridgeway game was THE GAME.

This game could have went either way and early on it looked like Central was about to blow Ridgeway out the gym and back to east Memphis. They got up on Ridgeway by double figures early and the game was going so fast I didn't have time to write down how much they had went up on them.

Those that took a potty break and came back into the gym missed Ridgeway's 5 steals in the second quarter and converting them into points. They went into halftime down by only 2, 29-27.

Ridgeway's junior Hasina Muhammad came out and hit 2 three's in somebody's face and Miss Odequa Oigbokie was a beast on the boards getting 4 rebounds and adding 8 points in the 3rd. But Central's sophomore Aaliyah Whiteside hit 2 three pointers of her own and helped keep the momentum about even for the 3rd. Game tied 47-47.



Fourth quarter was what I came to the Regional 8-AAA semi-final contests for. If I would have went with my first thought and went home, did a little work on the computer, ate some chicken noodle soup and snuggled in bed with my remote, I would have missed the most exciting fourth quarter of questionable calls by refs and decisions by players, the most composed freshman player and the almost biggest upset in tournament play.

Like I said earlier this could have went either way. And when the horn sounded with 0 seconds, Central was up by 2.

I must say this about this player. She played the point position. She made mistakes. She made turnovers. Her coached pulled her out of the game. Her coached chewed her out. This was ongoing during the game. Yet, when it came time to step up. This young lady made 6 out of 8 free throws in the fourth quarter -----as a freshman. Central's Nina Davis lead her team in scoring in the 4th quarter of the game with 8 points and the entire game finishing with 21.

Final Score: Central 67-65.