One by one, members of the Catawba Ridge girl’s basketball team walked out of the locker room on the wrong end of a 52-44 playoff loss.
And one by one, head coach Sheridan Pressley gave each player a warm hug, telling each of her players how proud she was of their efforts in a long season cut heartbreakingly short by a surprise loss in the first round of the state playoffs.
The tears flowed. The hugs kept coming.
“There are no words that can make this right,” Pressley said. “Tonight just wasn’t our night.”
Point guard Makailah Davis scored 16 points and power forward Morgan Davis added 11 points in the loss to the Eastside Eagles Thursday night in the first round of the Class 4A girl’s basketball playoffs. Catawba Ridge’s season is over with a final record of 20-5.
Tied 35-35 with seven minutes to play, the visiting Eagles outscored the Copperheads 17-11 in the pivotal fourth quarter. After giving up back-to-back 3-pointers early in the fourth, Catawba Ridge was forced to foul earlier than the team would have wanted.
Ultimately, Eastside nailed nine fourth-quarter foul shots to keep Catawba Ridge at bay, spoiling what could have been an exciting start to a playoff run for their squad. The Copperheads reached the Upper State championship game last season and earned the No. 2 seed in this year’s Upper State bracket, while Eastside was a 15th seed. Catawba Ridge was also ranked fifth in the 4A polls to open the playoffs.
But on Thursday, Catawba Ridge struggled to win 50/50 balls, were outgunned on the boards, and couldn’t find much luck shooting from the field, Pressley said.
“The 50/50 balls were a big contribution to (Eastside’s) success,” Pressley said. “It came down to their execution. Tonight, we didn’t have that.”
Eastside broke out to a quick lead and fought hard to keep it. The Eagles’ Alaysia Nash, Kristen McBride, and Sharonda Priester each hit 3-pointers to secure a seven-point lead after the first quarter.
Makailah Davis and Morgan Davis combined for layups on consecutive plays to curb the Eagles’ momentum, but the Copperheads were forced to change gears entering the second quarter.
Tatum Postel, who had six points, hit two shots from beyond the arc before Makailah Davis knocked down a trey of her own after missing her first few attempts. Addison Cunningham, who added 7 points, secured a steal and went coast-to-coast for the layup to spark a critical 9-3 run midway through the second quarter to turn the tides and send Catawba Ridge into the halftime break tied at 24-24.
Catawba Ridge was held to just one basket, a Makailah Davis 3-pointer, in the third quarter. Meanwhile, Nash and Ava Wilson found space in the paint for Eastside to combine for four field goals to take a narrow 35-33 lead entering the final eight minutes.
The Eagles quickly jumped out to an advantage and didn’t let up. Nash and Miracle Cheeks hit back-to-back 3-pointers with about five minutes to play to open up a six-point lead that Catawba Ridge couldn’t equal.
Cunningham hit a long jumper to cut the lead to 46-40 with two minutes to play, and Makailah Davis’ long two cut the lead to five with 50.9 seconds left, but there wasn’t enough time to complete the comeback amid Eastside’s effective free throw shooting.
Pressley said she was proud of her whole team, especially her seniors, Brielle Windisch, who scored four points, and Postel.
“They’ve laid the foundation of this program,” she said. “They started something here for us to build on. That’s something for which I’ll forever be grateful. It lives past them.”
Pressley said her team will take their adversity as a learning experience. She said she wants her team to work through hard times.
“We’ll feel this hurt and this pain,” she said. “But for others who will be new in the program, it’ll be new and fresh. We’ll build the identify of who we are. It’s different for every team, but the culture stays the same.”
