Conway girls turn up pressure, run past Carolina Forest for third straight time

Conway was able to run right by its U.S. 501 rival in both games a season ago.

Make it three straight.

The Tigers used a strong final three quarters on Friday to defeat Carolina Forest 60-36, earning their third consecutive win over the Panthers, all by double digits. In the most recent matchup, most of the difference could be chalked up to one important aspect of the game.

“This region is pretty tough. You’ve got to be able to hand the ball and handle the ball pressure,” Conway coach Shamae Hemingway. “That does make it a little bit frustrating if you’re not handling the ball.

“We started out slow. When we turned up the defense, it helped offensively.”

Throughout most of the night, that wasn’t an issue for Conway. Without so much as pressing, the Tigers were able to create issues necessary to create a seven-point halftime lead and continue to extend that advantage.

The Panthers, playing without starting point guard Cheyenne Pyles (death in family), led 11-9 at the end of the first quarter. Through that point, fellow guard Ellen Nardella had hit three 3-pointers. However, a slew of turnovers and missed shots led to a pair of sluggish periods. The team scored just three total fields in the second and third quarters, and had it not been for a free-throw laden 19-point effort from forward Alexis Tomlin, the final score would have looked much worse.

Meanwhile, Conway started to get hot right around the same time Carolina Forest’s struggles began and never really let up.

“They aggressively hit the boards hard. They got some momentum,” Panthers coach Stacy Hughes said. “… We’d take some long shots, and they’d get the rebound; we’d have some turnovers. So we definitely felt the momentum [changing]. We tried to use our timeouts and get them settled. A team like that that’s athletic, you can’t have lapses on transition defense.”

Conway certainly made Carolina Forest pay when it did. Meme Williams scored 21 points in the win, while Zakera Chadmon and Lanaejha Evans each added 14.

Outside of Tomlin’s 19 points, the Panthers got points from only Nardella (12, all on 3s) and Lauren Hill (five).

The loss dropped Carolina Forest to 8-10 overall, but more importantly 1-3 inside the region. Conway has now won seven of its last eight and is 3-1 in Region VI-AAAA behind only Sumter.

“I think if we come to play, we could make a big push. But I tell my girls they can’t take anybody lightly. Sumter’s a great team. We lost to them by 16. But again, we turned the ball over a lot.”

Against Carolina Forest, the Tigers were on the right side of that statistic.

This story was originally published January 22, 2016 at 10:21 PM with the headline "Conway girls turn up pressure, run past Carolina Forest for third straight time."