AHSAA REGIONALS: Jones wills Smiths Station to win over Robertsdale

TROY — Smiths Station’s girls almost surrendered a 21-point, second-quarter lead in their Class 6A South Regional semifinal against Robertsdale on Wednesday.

After getting a little bit of breathing room, the Panthers almost gave up a 10-point lead in the fourth quarter.

But Erika Jones would not let them lose.

The 6-foot-2 junior always had an answer in the post, finishing with 29 points and 20 rebounds in Smiths Station’s 53-49 win.

Jones played all but two minutes for the Panthers (28-4) and took a pounding from the Bears’ two bigs, Samantha Butcher and Keyiania Youngblood.

And the junior didn’t tire down the stretch — she scored 10 of her points in the fourth quarter.

“I don’t really think about (being tired),” Jones said. “When you’re in the game, you’re in the zone, you don’t really think much about anything besides winning.”

Jones hit 8-of-15 field goals and 12-of-18 from the line, making up for the offense the Panthers were missing from leading scorer DeJah Heard, who was limited by foul trouble.

The Bears (22-4) made their first run in the second and third quarters, after Heard and Vannessa Peterson had each picked up her third foul.

After going scoreless for almost 10 minutes and falling behind 23-2, Robertsdale went on a 22-5 run over the next 6:16 to cut the Panthers’ lead to 4.

When Smiths built its lead back up to double digits at the beginning of the fourth, a 14-6 Bears run closed them to within a basket and made things interesting for the final three
minutes.

“I have never seen a team that was down that far and believed they could come back and win,” Smiths Station coach Shana Johnson said. “That’s saying something, to have kids of that caliber.”

The Panthers hit 9-of-12 free throws down the stretch, just a drop in the bucket of the 29 they made for the game.

“We didn’t lose control,” Peterson said. “I could tell some people wanted to, but we stayed focused.”

The Panthers made up for poor shooting (25 percent) and ballhandling (29 turnovers against three assists) performances with their free throws and domination of the boards.

Smiths outrebounded Robertsdale 56-34, with 20 coming on the offensive end. Peterson cleaned up 19 boards, which, with Jones’ 20, outpaced the whole Bears’ squad by five.

“We always battle with each other,” Peterson said. “Coach tells us that rebounds are the key. If you get rebounds, you win basketball games.”

Peterson scored 8 to go along with her 19 rebounds, and Heard chipped in 7, all coming from the free-throw line.

Shelby Trotter led Robertsdale with 20 points, and Ciaria McMillan put in 13.

Smiths Station plays Dothan (25-3) on Saturday at 9 a.m. for the South Region championship and a trip to Birmingham for the state Final Four.

dmorrison@oanow.com | 737-2568

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