The Carmi-White County Lady Bulldogs hosted the Woodlawn Lady Cardinals for their final game of the regular season, as it was also Senior Night at McDougal-Evers Gymnasium.
It was an emotional start to the evening. Prior to the game, CWC recognized their three seniors; Lily Pollard, Shemaine Lovell and Ebonie Hawkins.
The emotions from the salute to the CWC seniors led to a slow start for the Lady Bulldogs. CWC had some good looks on the offensive end, but the shots just wouldn’t fall.
Struggles aside, the Lady Bulldogs hung around in the first half. After falling behind 10-3 early in the 1st quarter, two free throws by Johanna Smith and a layup from Caroline Simmons made the score 12-7 at the end of the 1st, despite the Lady Bulldogs shooting just 2/11 in the first 8 minutes.
Into the 2nd quarter it still took time for Carmi to find their rhythm on offense. With three turnovers in their first three possessions of the 2nd, Woodlawn extended their lead to 17-9.
The Lady Bulldogs were able to cut that deficit to 18-13 at the half.
Along came the 3rd quarter and a different Lady Bulldog team came out of the locker room.
Thanks to a free throw from Simmons, a layup by Smith, and a three-pointer from Ashlyn Rager – the Lady Bulldogs began the half on a 6-0 run to take a 19-18 lead.
From that point forward, both teams traded punches.
Woodlawn answered with a quick 5-1 run to take the lead back at 23-20, the Lady Cardinals led 26-24 going into the 4th quarter.
Shemaine Lovell began the 4th quarter with a bang, a corner three-point shot to put the Lady Dogs right back in front.
Next possesion, Lovell took the ball and went right back to the basket, drawing a foul and hitting both free throws. Carmi led 29-27.
Woodlawn tied the game with a pair of free throws, and then Lovell struck again. A Kevin Durant-like pull up three pointer on the right wing fired up the Carmi faithful and put the Lady Dogs back in front 32-29 with 6:30 to go.
But after that basket, Carmi began to run out of magic.
A few minutes later, Woodlawn regained the lead at 37-35, and they never looked back.
Jayse Burkett hit a layup with 3:05 to play, which would be the last made field goal for the Lady Cardinals, and that was all they needed.
Woodlawn finished the game hitting twelve consecutive free throws to hang on for the 51-39 win to improve to 22-7 on the season.
“It took us a while to get going tonight,” said CWC head coach Clinton Wolff. “We came out after halftime and did a much better job at moving the ball around offensively and getting the ball to the bucket and scoring.”
“We did exactly what we needed to do, but a just a few missed opportunities was the difference.”
Shemaine Lovell led the Lady Bulldogs in scoring with 13 points.
Caroline Simmons scored 10.
Johanna Smith scored 7.
Ashlyn Rager scored 5.
Mara Serafini scored 2.
The Lady Bulldogs end the regular season with a 9-19 record, but anyone who has followed this team in the second half of the season knows that Carmi’s record could easily be much closer to the .500 mark.
But records now don’t mean anything, as we have reached the postseason.
CWC will begin regional play on Saturday at home against Palestine.
Palestine is 11-12 on the season, and they have two common opponents with the Lady Bulldogs, Lawrenceville and Edwards County.
Palestine beat Lawrenceville 72-68 last week, CWC defeated Lawrenceville 50-15 in December.
Palestine lost to Edwards County 55-41 on Thursday, CWC fell to EC 59-44 on January 5 and 49-37 on January 26.
Tip-off is set for 1 PM, fans can listen to the game on 97.3 FM WRUL or online at WRUL.com, Roger Hobbs will have the call.
Fans will be able to watch the game on the Carmi-White County High School YouTube Channel.
