Conway digs out of early hole, stuns St. James

Frustration written all over her face, Conway girls basketball coach Shamae Hemingway didn’t mince words about her team’s issues in the first half Tuesday night at St. James.

“We just were making some things hard for ourselves,” she said. “We weren’t knocking down shots, not playing the way we could play. In large part, we just needed to settle down.”

Down by nine, it was a different group of Tigers that took the floor in the second half.

Conway quickly dug itself out of that hole, outscoring St. James by 19 points in the second half en route to a 48-38 victory.

“It was the kind of effort I believe we can have,” Hemingway said. “We played our game in the second half and it worked to our advantage.”

Early on, this one had the makings of a game that could go down to the wire, the teams trading the lead on several occasions in the first half.

Toward the end of the second period, it seemed St. James had finally created some distance. Anchored by senior Bethany Goodrich, an 11-0 run allowed the Lady Sharks to take a 22-11 in the half’s closing seconds.

Goodrich had 6 points in the final three minutes of the half.

Within minutes after returning from halftime, however, that advantage was gone.

The road back began at the foul line, with point guard Zakera Chadman’s ability to change pace forcing St. James players to rack up on fouls. Such would eventually open lanes for the likes of Meme Williams to showcase her abilities, both by taking the ball to the rim and from deep range.

Williams would score 13 of her team-high 15 points in the second half, her 3-pointer in the midst of a 17-4 second half run that helped effectively put the game out of reach.

Lanaejah Evans also had 10 points in the win for the Tigers.

For St. James head coach Stan Patterson, it was a frustrating finish to a game that early on had so much promise.

“We missed some open shots and turned the ball over a little too much in the second half,” he said. “That was our first game in more than two weeks, and I think that showed a little bit in the second half. Conway took advantage, and made their free throws down the stretch as well.”

Goodrich had a game-high 16 points in the loss for St. James, with Kimmie Hotzelt and Kelsi Bachmann chipping in eight apiece.

This story was originally published January 6, 2016 at 12:20 AM with the headline "Conway digs out of early hole, stuns St. James."