South girls roll in battle of unbeatens

The South girls relish their defensive prowess, which has stymied opponents to the tune of giving up 16.8 points per game.

South relied on that defense yet again on Saturday as the Titans beat Heights 52-34 to improve to 5-0. South held Heights 44 points below its scoring average.

It was the second unbeaten opponent South faced in five days. South beat Carroll 42-26 on Tuesday.

“Coach (Antwain Scales) really preaches defense to us, and we pride ourselves on being a defensive team,” said South senior Kendrian Elliott, who had 14 points and 10 rebounds. “Our team really did good.”

While South’s offense was led by Ericka Mattingly (14 points, two three-pointers) and Elliott, Heights stumbled. The Falcons not only committed six first-quarter turnovers, they missed their first 14 field goal attempts, including all 12 in the first quarter.

It was nearly 10 minutes into the game before Heights’ Analyss Benally made the Falcons’ first field goal .

“It’s hard to plan for that,” Heights coach Kip Pulliam said. “When you dig yourself a hole against a really good team like that, then you’re trying to do things you’re not good at. You’re trying to force things.”

Hampered with foul trouble, Heights leading scorer Analyss Benally finished with four points, 18 below her average.

“I’m really proud of the girls that they responded, especially being weary and tired,” said South coach Antwain Scales, whose team beat East 54-7 on Friday. “We didn’t play a good game against Carroll, shooting free throws and a lot of turnovers, so we wanted to make sure we maximized our full potential.

“We were able to do that today.”

As Heights watched its shots fall short or rattle out or bang off the rim, South, the three-time defending Class 6A champion, cruised.

Elliott, who made 6 of 7 free throws, converted two three-point plays in the first quarter. Teammate Naria Hall came off the bench to hit two three-pointers as South built a 20-3 lead over Heights (4-1).

South’s offense got stagnant in the second quarter, though, due to foul troubles with Elliott and Mattingly. In order to protect the two, Scales slowed down the game.

“It was a stall tactic, but we did some uncharacteristic (things) that actually put us in a bad situation,” Scales said.

Heights went on a 7-1 run that was started by two Benally free throws. But Trezure Jobe hit a three from the top of the key. Then after Elliott got a steal, Jobe scored in transition for the 28-11 lead with 4:19 to go in the second period.

Jobe scored six of South’s second-quarter points.

In the final 90 seconds, Heights’ Whitlee Teague took a defensive rebound in for a basket, was fouled and converted the three-point play, while Samauria Powell hit a jumper. Powell led Heights with 10 points.

At the break, Heights was within 28-17.

“I think we got sped up in that quarter,” Mattingly said. “We lost our head a little bit.”

In the third quarter, South settled back in and held Heights to four points.

“We went back with our group — capitalize, execute,” Scales said. “It was a great job of being fundamentally sound in that third quarter.”

This story was originally published December 19, 2015 at 8:52 PM with the headline "South girls roll in battle of unbeatens."