JD coach LaKenya Knight was all smiles Tuesday during the Lady Vols’ win over Dothan. (Staff Photo)

Staff Report
(Feb. 17, 2010)

Samantha Thomas would not be denied.

The forward for Jeff Davis found the ball in her hands time after time either through rebounds or the dribble drive and dish by her teammates. She was usually the receiver of the passes from Jatoria Carter in the Lady Volunteers’ 64-43 win over Dothan in the Class 6A Central Regional semifinal at Alabama State’s Acadome on Tuesday.

Her 21 points led all scorers and help set up a date with Central-Phenix City on Friday at 10 a.m.

"Words can’t explain it," said Jeff Davis coach LaKenya Knight. "She has been in a slump. We knew that and she knew that and we’ve talked about it. But she stayed with it,.She didn’t let it get into her head or get her down."

Thomas missed just one shot out of 11 attempts in the game.

"I just decided to wake up," she said. "I didn’t want to end my season being in a slump."

Lady Tigers coach Debbie McCauley had concerns about the size descrepency before the game. Her fears came to fruition in the first few minutes when the Vols began to pull away in the early portion of the second quarter.

When Thomas sat down, Brianca Crenshaw usually took her place and was equally effective inside.

“They were huge. How do you de defend that?,” McCauley said. “They’ve got four girls with that kind of size and our guys looked like Popeye’s girlfriend next to them.”

JD continued to exploit the size advantage throughout the second half and pulled away for a 14-point lead at the break. The lead continued through the second half.

"Whoever’s hot, then that’s who we keep going to, whether it’s a guard or a post player," Knight said. "We went inside and it just kept working so we just kept going with what was working."

Lanier loses lead late

The Central-Phenix City Lady Red Devils were playing the waiting game.

Trailing Sidney Lanier for much of the morning, Red Devils coach Carolyn Wright figured something good would happen if her team stayed the course.

Central did and good things happened.

And a few bad things happened for the Lady Poets.

Central advanced to the Class 6A Central Regional final with a 62-47 victory over Lanier on Tuesday at the Alabama State Dunn-Oliver Acadome. The Red Devils will face Jeff Davis Friday in the finals.

“We kept fighting and used our strength to win,” Wright said. “This is a mature team and we kept to the gameplan.”

Lanier was seemingly in control midway through the third quarter when the wheels fell off. After leading by seven at the break, the Poets went cold, missing shots that had gone in for the first 28 minutes.

“We just couldn’t muster up enough offense,” Lanier coach Steve Holloway said. “We had some bad luck, too.”

Already lacking depth at guard after last week’s injury to guard Sheila Thomas, the Poets lost Ashley Henley to an injury late in the third quarter, leaving Lanier without an experienced point guard.

That left Taila Arrington handling multiple duties. The Poets’ leading scorer moved to point while having to find lanes to drive and shoot.

“We basically asked her to do it all,” Holloway said. “At that point, we tried to do too much. We rushed shots.”

After shooting 41 percent in the first half, Lanier fell off sharply to just 14 percent (4 of 29) in the second half. The Poets scored just eight points in the fourth quarter.

Arrington scored 31 points to lead all scorers. Monique Jackson had 19 points, 19 rebounds and seven assists to lead Central (21-8).

It was only the second loss of the season for Lanier (27-2), which lost in the regional semifinal for the second year in a row