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The Lady Bulldogs barely even broke a sweat against the North Carolina School of Science and Math, stealing and scoring the ball with ease on the way to surpassing the century mark, 103-32. Thomasville will be hosting the two-time defending state champion Villains of Bishop-McGuinness on Friday night in the sectional finals, as the Villains rolled to a 77-36 win.
“This was a total team effort,” said head coach Lacardo Means. “We had almost everybody to score and the kids played well and played hard. I’m hoping this carries over into Friday.”
Thomasville in fact scored enough points with 7:39 to play in the second quarter to wrap up the win. THS swiped, sliced, diced and shot its way to a 31-7 lead after one period, with Wake Forest signee Secily Ray heading up the blowout committee. NCSSM actually led 2-0, but a 31-3 run over the next seven minutes and change was enough to have the Lady Unicorns retreating back to Durham.
Ray started the second quarter out with a 8-0 run on her own to help build a 39-7 lead, and she had two more points than the visitors at the half with 18. The score at that point had reached 54-16.
Second half action belonged to Tianna Hall, as the senior guard stole the ball seven times for the game and turned them into points. Her steal and dish to Ray with 4:38 left in the third pushed the lead to a whopping 70-21.
With plenty of time left and the score nearing the 100-point plateau, Means gave the go-ahead to see if the mark was reachable. Tia Davis took care of the honor, running the floor for two on a layup to make it 99, and then added two free throws next trip down to push the Lady Bulldogs over the top.
“I’m hoping to peak at the end and [we] want to win the last 10 instead of the first 10,” said Means.
Ray ended the night with 28 points, Hall 19 and Davis 14. Ray also had nine rebounds, six assists and six steals.
While the night was an incredible achievement for the team, there are bigger mountains to climb come Friday against Bishop. These two were expected to tangle at some point, and Means is ready to rumble.
“We cannot lose our composure if we get behind,” said Means. “We have gotten behind before this year but we haven’t lost composure. If we can lead from the start to the end, that is even better. Win or lose, if we give our best effort and they beat us, they were a better team that night. We are not going to give it away and I know they aren’t going to give it away, so I expect a knock-down, drag-out fight. I’m here for the 15 rounds if we have to go 15.”
Game time will be 6:30.