Jeff Davis guard Jatoria Carter reaches over Central’s Monique Jackson for a shot in the Lady Vols’ win on Friday. (Staff Photo).

Staff Report
(Feb. 19, 2010)

Before the postseason began, Jeff Davis Lady Volunteers head coach LaKenya Knight gave her team the annual speech – everyone is 0-0. Play hard and good things will happen.

Good things indeed.

The Lady Vols are headed to Birmingham after disposing of the Central-Phenix City Lady Red Devils, 48-39, in the finals of the Class 6A Central Regional at Alabama State’s Acadome on Friday.

Jeff Davis will play at noon against Hoover or Gadsden City next Friday at the BJCC Arena.

“You hear coaches say it every year and it gets worn out,” Knight said, “but it is true. Everybody has a clean slate at the beginning of the playoffs. You hope your experience from the season prepares you for this time of year. Our girls have played hard since the playoffs began and this is the payoff.”

Jatroria Carter scored 20 points and put on a dribbling exhibition in the final five minutes to ice the game for the Vols (25-10).

“It came down to who wanted it more,” Carter said. “Coach told us to play hard and don’t let up.”

JD led by a point at halftime before Central (21-9) took a brief lead at 24-23 in the first minute of the half. But sophomore Monterika Warren caught fire, scoring all of her seven points to lift the Vols in the late stages of the third quarter.

The Vols slowly pulled away taking as much as an 11-point lead in the fourth quarter. “Going small” played a large role in the Vols’ late success.

“We took out (forwards Samantha Thomas and Brianca Crenshaw) because we felt like we could force more turnovers in backcourt,” Knight said. “We tried to put more pressure on them. We got some turnovers and that helped us offensively.”

With an eigh-point lead, Knight pulled her team out and ran what is the Vols’ version of the four-corners. Carter shuffled back and forth between mid court and the foul line during her self-made stall to control the clock.

“(Knight) told me to stay in control and not worry about anything but running clock,” Carter said.

“We had a talk earlier this week about it,” Knight said. “She knew what to do and I thought she was successful running the clock down.”

Margaret Purdue was the only other player in double figures for the Vols with 11 points. Monique Jackson and Kristi McKube each had 10 points for Central.

Next Friday, Jeff Davis will make its first appearance in the Final Four since 2007.

“It’s exciting to be going,” Carter said. “Everybody has that goal but only four get to go. But we don’t want to be happy with just being there. We want to win it all.”

JD is expected to face Hoover, which is a prohibitive favorite to win the state title. But Knight likes the idea of being the underdog.

“We weren’t supposed to win this (regional) and I know no one expects us to win in Birmingham,” she said. “We might lose by 40 but we want to gain the experience of being there and playing hard. That’s important to this program right now. We aren’t worried about who we play or how we got there. It’s a matter of playing our best.”