ASHEBORO — Makayla Glover’s inbounds layup at the start of the fourth quarter put Jordan-Matthews ahead to stay while J-M survived a record-breaking performance by Trinity freshman point guard Autumn Gentry to collar a 33-30 victory over the Lady Bulldogs and capture seventh place in the 29th annual The Courier-Tribune Christmas Invitational Tournament at Asheboro High School last Monday afternoon.
Defeating Trinity for only the fourth time in 17 tourney meetings, the Lady Jets raised their overall ledger to 3-8, while the Lady Bulldogs fell to 1-11 for the season.
Jordan-Matthews was led by Ellia Wright’s 18 points as the winners connected on just 25 percent (13-of-52) of their field goal attempts but controlled the boards by a whopping 42-23 margin, with Jasmine Scotten pulling down 22 rebounds and Glover adding 13, while J-M turned the ball over 16 times.
Gentry tallied all but two of her team’s points as Trinity shot 26 percent (12-of-47) from the floor while committing 14 turnovers. Her cumulative total of 90 points over the three-day event established a new girls’ individual scoring record, eclipsing the previous mark of 86 points set by Wheatmore’s Taylor Walker in 2012.
“It was good to finally get a win in this tournament even though we didn’t have an answer to stopping Gentry,” said Lady Jets’ coach Charles Byrd. “While we did a good job boxing out and controlling the boards, offensively we still need to work on more movement off the ball. Our shots were there tonight, but our forwards need to do better finishing around the rim.”
Lady Bulldogs’ coach Mike Sink said his team is still a work in progress, with only two players having any previous basketball experience.
“While the big key this afternoon was J-M’s rebounding advantage that allowed them to have second and third-chance opportunities, we didn’t execute well running our offense,” Sink said. “When the ball rotates to Autumn the other players have a tendency to stand around and wait for her to make something happen. We really need other individuals to step up and help take the scoring load off her.”
Trinity jumped out to a 6-0 advantage in the opening four minutes of play and maintained a six-point lead (10-4) after one period.
Jordan-Matthews eventually seized its first advantage with 1:23 left in the second stanza when a Wright charity toss snapped a 12-all standoff and gave J-M a one-point lead before her pull-up basket in the paint in the final second of the half put the Lady Jets up 15-12 at intermission.
Following Avery Headen’s jumper in the lane that increased Jordan-Matthews’ advantage to 21-14 with 4:13 remaining in the third quarter, the Lady Bulldogs ran off nine unanswered points to fashion a 23-21 lead on Sydney Skeen’s layup with 51.8 seconds to go in the frame. But Wright’s fast break layup with 4.6 seconds showing on the clock then sent the teams into the final eight minutes tied at 23-apiece.
After Glover’s bucket nine seconds into the fourth period gave J-M the advantage for good, the Lady Jets squandered several chances to put the game away by missing the front end of three one-and-one opportunities over the last 65 seconds.
But following Gentry’s layup with 13.6 seconds left that drew Trinity within 31-30, Headen and Wright each sank one-of-two free throw attempts in the time remaining to secure the triumph.
At the conclusion of the tourney, Wright and Gentry were both named to the All-Tournament Team.