Tyra Lacy hit a jumper from the left side with just four seconds remaining Monday to give Columbus’ Hardaway High School Lady Golden Hawks a 33-32 victory over the Bainbridge High School Lady Cats in the region 1-AAAAA basketball tournament consolation game for third and fourth place.
As the third and fourth place region 1-AAAAA teams, the Lady Golden Hawks and Lady Cats will both advance to the State Class AAAAA Tournament along with the champion Northside Columbus High School Lady Patriots and second place Lee County High School Lady Trojans, who will host the first round games.
The Lady Golden Hawks and Lady Cats will play their first round State Class AAAAA Tournament games on the road. The Lady Cats will play Effingham County on Friday. The Northside Columbus High School lady Patriots defeated the Lee County High School Lady Trojans 54-33 Monday to win the region 1-AAAAA championship.
The Lady Cats divided a pair of Friday and Saturday games to advance to Monday’s consolation game for third and fourth place in the region tournament and a berth in the state tournament.
The Lady Cats assured their berth in the state tournament by defeating the Harris County High School Lady Tigers 56-49 in a tournament play-in game Friday. Saturday, they dropped a 46-41 decision to the Lee County High School Lady Trojans.
Other Saturday tournament action featured the Northside Columbus High School Lady Patriots defeating the Hardaway High School Lady Golden Hawks 53-28. Alexandria Carter led the Lady Cats Friday with 19 points. Patra Parris put in 17 points. Miesha Brooks of the Lady Tigers took game scoring honors with 25 points.
They played the Hardaway High School Lady Golden Hawks in a consolation game for third and fourth place on Monday.
The Lady Cats took command early in their Friday win over Harris County. They went up 8-5 on a Patra Parris layup with 1:24 left in the first quarter. Tameria Levens increased the advantage to 10-5 with a jumper from the right side at the 1:02 mark. They were out front 25-18 at halftime and 36-31 after three quarters.
They went up by 12 at 50-38 when Carter hit a jumper with 2:18 left in the fourth quarter.
Saturday against Lee County the Lady Cats went up 10-4 with a three-point jumper from the right side and a layup by Levens at the 4:12 and 3:30 marks of the first quarter. They trailed 17-13 at the end of the first quarter.
Lady Cats coach Kelvin Cochran said he thought his team played hard against Harris County, Lee County and Hardaway.
“We played hard and hustled but just came up a little short,” he said.