Free State tournament: South claims title with 44th straight win

Perhaps the only thing rising faster than South’s turnover total in the fourth quarter of Saturday’s Firebird Classic championship game against Topeka Seaman was Titan coach Antwain Scales’ blood pressure.

Any little mistake is enough to drive any coach crazy and the careless and out-of-character miscues the Titans were making had Scales frustrated to be sure.

Whatever frustrations he and the Titans had, however, were tempered by their efforts on the other end of the floor. South made a slim lead hold up by forcing five Seaman turnovers and holding them scoreless until the final second, notching its 44th consecutive win with a 33-28 victory in the slow-paced, defensive contest.

“We hit some adversity points, but we were still able to persevere and get through it,” Scales said. “I’m extremely proud of how tough we were this week. We had a lot of situations where we were down or it was a go-either-way deal and we were able to pull together and come out with the wins.”

South improved to 12-0 thanks in large part to a calm demeanor when tough games against Free State in Friday’s semifinal and Seaman in Saturday’s title game could have led to panic mode. The Titans saw Free State make five three-pointers against them on Friday, falling behind early, and Saturday against Seaman, they trailed for most of the first quarter and then gave up an eight-point lead in the third quarter.

After Seaman forged a tie at 26-26 on Katera Mayfield’s second straight score inside capped a 10-2 run, South stiffened. The Vikings didn’t make another shot until Halee Olson-Thomas scored with one second left in the game. The Titans’ defense was so smothering, the Vikings only got off three other shot attempts in the final quarter.

Typically, that spells blowout for South, but Seaman’s defense was almost the equal as the Vikings forced five South turnovers in the final period and held the Titans to only three shot attempts. Trezure Jobe cashed in on two, scoring on a clear-out drive to the basket in the first minute of the quarter to push South’s lead to four and then again on another layup with 42 seconds left to all but seal the win.

Jobe finished with a game-high 13 points in a contest where both teams combined to only take 47 shots with each committed to running deliberate offense. Kyla Callins and Loan-Anh Johnson each added seven points for the Titans, while Seaman was led by Olson-Thomas’ nine points.

“It was nerve-wracking, but at the same time we also understand strategy,” Scales said. “I thought for three-quarters of the game, we played at their pace and during a stretch in the fourth quarter, we were able to play ours. You talk about experience and understanding situations and at times we made some bad choices, but overall we were able to pull it together, stay focused and get it done.”

This story was originally published January 28, 2017 at 5:36 PM with the headline "Free State tournament: South claims title with 44th straight win."