JACKSONVILLE – Spring Garden junior guard Savannah Dempsey showed flashes last season of being a clutch shooter in the big games.
She continued adding to that resume on Monday in the Class 1A Northeast Regional final against seventh-ranked Winterboro.
With the fourth-ranked Lady Panthers leading by seven at the end of the third quarter, Dempsey opened the fourth with her third trey of the game, giving Spring Garden a 10-point cushion.
Then, with just over three minutes left in the game, Dempsey delivered the dagger that put the Lady Panthers up 11 in a 47-35 victory that sends Spring Garden back to Birmingham.
“I just felt like it was my time to make a shot,” Dempsey said. “I knew they were sagging in on Tookie (Tykeah Rogers), and Madison (Sides) hit those threes. I just felt it as soon as I pulled it. I didn’t realize it was that close of a game. I didn’t realize it was that big of a shot, to be honest.”
Dempsey may not have realized how big her final trey was, but head coach Ricky Austin sure did.
“I think we relaxed when that happened,” Austin said. “Savannah’s been making big shots for two years for us, and that may be the biggest shot she made in her career.”
Senior guard Sides also realized the importance of her teammate’s final trey.
“We kind of got out control a little bit, and I think that just made everybody relax,” said Sides, who led the Lady Panthers (29-4) with 15 points. “From then on, we just played our game.”
Dempsey finished with 12 points, all on treys. Senior center Rogers posted 14 points and 14 boards. Dempsey, Sides and Rogers were named to the all-tournament team, with Rogers earning the Most Valuable Player honor.
“We knew they were going to sag in on me,” Rogers said. “We’re pretty good shooters, but we had to know we were going to get our shots. I think we did pretty good getting the ball in and me facing up and kicking it back out, but it was hard. They were killing me in the paint.”
As Rogers said, Winterboro (23-5) helped make the game a grind for the Lady Panthers.
Even though Spring Garden led the majority of the contest, the Lady Bulldogs managed to stay within striking distance, even with one of their best players – junior Aniya Burroughs – on the bench with foul trouble. Burroughs picked up a pair of fouls in the first half and had four with 5:22 remaining in the game. She eventually fouled out with 42.6 seconds left, finishing with just four points.
“We thought that was our opportunity to extend the lead when she got into foul trouble,” Austin said. “We didn’t really extend it that well in the first half. You’ve got to credit them for being scrappy when one of their better players went to the bench in foul trouble early.”
Spring Garden led 11-7 at the end of the first quarter and held a 21-9 advantage at halftime. Winterboro whittled the Lady Panther lead to 30-23 at the end of the third quarter, setting the stage for Dempsey’s clutch treys.
Anslea Twymon led the Lady Bulldogs with 10 points, eight rebounds and three assists. Morgan Merritt and Nadia Estelle added nine points apiece.
Burroughs and Twymon represented Winterboro on the all-tournament team, as did Cedar Bluff senior point guard Delilah Price.
Spring Garden will play the Central Regional champion next Monday at noon at the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex. The Lady Panthers will face the winner of Tuesday’s clash between top-ranked Keith and No. 2 Loachapoka.
Keith defeated Spring Garden in last year’s Class 1A state title game, 38-25.
“I’ve already seen Loachapoka play a couple of times, and we’ve got Keith on video,” Austin said. “They’re two good teams. Either one of them are good enough to win state. We’ve just got to get to work. We’ll have to continue to defend well, but we’ve got to keep finding ways to put the ball in the basket.”