Carmi stays perfect at Preview
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[The Carmi-White County Lady Bulldogs got moving - both literally and figuratively - in the third quarter Wednesday to earn a 45-21 win over Anna-Jonesboro and remain perfect at the Harrisburg Lady Bulldog Preview Tournament.
After missing their first nine shots of the game and struggling through the first half offensively, coach Eric Dixon's Lady Bulldogs started the third quarter with a 15-0 run, using precise passing and plenty of cuts to the basket to pick apart the Lady Wildcats' 3-2 zone.
"We had the shots we were looking for early on," said Dixon, whose team is now 3-1 overall and 3-0 at the weeklong, round-robin tournament. "They were good shots - they just didn't go in. That was pretty much the way it went the whole half. Part of it was my fault. We thought we had an idea of what we could do and it didn't quite work. We got too stationary.
"We just told them at halftime they had to get some movement, find the open place, overload... Allison [Davis], Haley [Nichols] and Ariana [Lee] did a great job of passing inside, Shauna [Whitley] hit some shots and from there, we picked up the press and got some easy baskets. Once we got on a roll, they had to start gambling, and that's when our girls started picking them apart."
After the first eight points of CWC's 15-0 run, A-J abandoned its zone and went to man-to-man. Lee promptly lobbed a pass inside to 6-foot Davis, who missed, but stuck back the rebound for a 28-14 lead. On the Lady Bulldogs' next possession, Lee got a stickback of her own, as the onslaught continued. A-J's only basket of the quarter came with 38 seconds remaining.
"Everybody got into a little rhythm, got some confidence in their passing and started feeling where the open person was," said Dixon of his team's second-half performance.
Lee finished with 17 points and seven rebounds. Whitley added a dozen points, Davis six, Nichols four, and Katelyn Weaver, Brynn Anderson and Hannah Kuykendall two each.
Nichols had six of CWC's 15 assists (on 20 made baskets) in the game and Lee had five. Whitley came up with five steals, as Dixon's club forced 20 turnovers while committing only six (only one in the second half).
"We went from over 20 our first three games to six," said the Lady Bulldog skipper. "Hopefully, that'll be the same Saturday night."
Carmi-White County is idle this evening, but will face defending champ Carbondale at 7:30 p.m. Saturday. "That's what we came down here for - to have a chance at winning the championship," said Dixon. "If we take care of the basketball and play good defense, we'll have a chance at it."
The Terriers (2-0 tourney) came from behind to defeat Frankfort 49-47 Wednesday, and will play the host team (3-1 overall, 1-1 tournament) at 7:30 tonight. The first game on this evening's slate will pit Frankfort against Anna-Jonesboro.