Rossview Lady Hawks Win In Overtime, 52-47, Advance to State Tournament Semifinals

Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Murfreesboro, TN – The Rossview Lady Hawks are soaring.

With a 52-47 overtime win over the Morristown West Lady Trojans Wednesday morning at MTSU’s Murphy Center in their first State Tournament appearance, the Lady Hawks have soared to the State Semifinals.

The lead changed five times in regulation. The teams were tied 34-34 going into the last quarter, and with 26 seconds left in the game, the Lady Trojans led 45-43.

Rossview Girl's Basketball defeats Morristown West in over-time to advance in state tournament (Michael Rios-Clarksville Sports Network) — Rossview Girl’s Basketball defeats Morristown West in over-time to advance in state tournament (Michael Rios-Clarksville Sports Network)

The clock had counted down to 7 seconds when Janie White scored in the paint to tie the game and send it to overtime. In overtime the Lady Hawks held the Lady Trojans to just 2 points.

The Lady Trojans shot 0-of-5 from the field in the overtime and committed 4 turnovers.

Conversely, White went 4-for-4 from the free throw line and made an assist in overtime. White led all scorers with 24 points. She also filled the stat sheet with 7 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 blocks.

She and fellow Lady Hawks’ senior Ashley Powers shot 6-of-9 from 3-point range in the game.

“I don’t think the atmosphere bothered us a bit,” Lady Hawks head coach Justin Woods said. “You expect your two seniors to step up when the lights are the brightest and that is what they did. I couldn’t be more proud of them.”

Powers scored 12 points and made 5 assists. Powers and White combined for 36 of the Lady Hawks’ total 52 points.

As a team, the Lady Hawks shot 47% from the field (17-36) including 6-of-11 from 3-point range.

Although, the Lady Hawks finished well, they started from behind early.

“They jumped out 10-2 and we were a little tight. We had no energy on defense. We were frozen almost,“ Woods said. “They shot a couple of layups early, we called time out and I said ‘Hey, this isn’t us. We get stops. We get after people. We are not playing like Rossview.‘ We came out after that time out and nerves were over.”

The Lady Hawks came back and tied the game with 4 minutes left until halftime. By the middle of the third quarter they had established a 9 point lead. However, the Lady Trojans closed the quarter on an 11-2 run and tied the game 34-34 going into the fourth.

Losing the big lead, did not rattle the Lady Hawks.

“I think in the Overton game we were behind almost the entire game. So when we got behind in this game it was like nothing for us,” Ashley Powers said. “We had our head composed and we knew we had to come back. In the Overton game, we were down by 12 and came back in the fourth quarter, so we just had that same mentality.”

Seven different Lady Trojans scored in the game. Sidney Newsome led her team with 17 points.

Next, the Lady Hawks will return to the Murphy Center Friday, March 7th at 10:00am to play the Ridgeway Lady Roadrunners from Memphis.

“It’s kind of surreal because we lost in the first round of the Regionals last year,” Janie White said. “But we know we are supposed to be here.”