The Commerce Lady Tigers came oh-so-close to breaking into the state tournament Wednesday night, but a late shot from Prince Avenue Christian in overtime gave the Lady Wolverines the 62-59 victory, ending Commerce’s season.
“It was very disappointing,” said coach Eddie McCurley. “We played well enough to win and the game obviously it could have gone either way. This team improved so much from the beginning of the season. It’s a shame we got put out because we were just starting to hit our stride. That’s all you can ask from your team is for them to work to get better and improve from start to finish.
“We were not the best team in the region, maybe not even one of the top three or four teams, but we showed that we could compete with any of them by season’s end.”
From the start, the game was a back-and-forth affair, with neither team able to pull out to a clear advantage. By the half, Prince Avenue held a slim one-point advantage, and that’s where they were with just over a minute left in the game, up 50-49 with possession of the ball.
Prince Avenue tried to run the clock down. The Lady Tigers committed five team fouls to get the Lady Eagles on the free throw line.
With 12 seconds left, Lily Mather grabbed a rebound, passed it to Vanessa Chandler, who got it to Jaz Grier. Grier nailed a three-pointer from about 22 feet to give Commerce a two-point lead, 52-50.
Unfortunately, the Lady Eagles tied the game with a two-pointer at the buzzer to send it into overtime.
Prince Avenue took the early advantage, at one point leading by six. But Commerce came roaring back and with just under 35 seconds left on the clock tied the game at 59. The Lady Eagles regained their advantage, but opened the door for Commerce with a foul with 2.5 seconds left. The free throws missed, and Prince Avenue rebounded, sealing the 62-59 victory for the Lady Eagles.
Amber Howell led in scoring with 27 points. Drea Mathis scored nine and went 7 of 8 from the free throw line.
“She really got us going in the early part of the game,” McCurley said.
Vanessa Chandler scored nine points, Lily Mather scored eight, and Ali Morgan scored six.
For more on this story, see Wednesday's edition of The Commerce News.
