Surge in final minutes lift Middlesex over Lady Panthers

Charles City's Veondra Brown (right) rips the ball away from Middlesex's Emilie Smith.

Andre' Jones photo

Tuesday night’s contest between the Charles City Lady Panthers and visiting Middlesex Lady Chargers provided the perfect gauge to show improvement made by the youthful hosts throughout the season. And for 30 minutes of the contest, Charles City continued to put pressure on the team that defeated them by 17 points just one week earlier.

But a surge by the Lady Chargers in the final two minutes provided enough distance to secure a 52-41 win in a match-up that was a lot tighter than the final score depicted.

Charles City’s Santaesha Hickman scored the opening five points of the game to give the Lady Panthers an early lead. But Middlesex countered with a triplet of three-pointers by Amber Self, sparking an 11-0 run to end the quarter with the visitors ahead (11-5).

Looking for some additional scoring, Charles City’s Skye Bradby sandwiched a Middlesex free throw with two long distance connections of her own, bringing the hosts within one (12-11). That lead was wiped out with Hickman’s jumper and subsequent steal and lay-in to bestow a 15-12 advantage for the hosts. Both teams would battle to a tie at 21 apiece before baskets by Middlesex’s Emilie Smith and Rachael Howard handed a 25-21 advantage to the visitors at the halftime intermission.

Each team exchanged buckets for a majority of the third quarter, paving a way into the final stanza with Middlesex ahead 34-28. The guests made their first threat to pull away as the quarter commenced. Smith sank a pair of free throws followed by Self’s fourth three-pointer in the game to hand Middlesex its largest lead of the night (41-32).

Still trailing by nine (44-35) with 2:46 remaining, Charles City made a surge to remain in the game. Hickman’s free throw was duplicated by teammate Veondra Brown. At the 1:44 mark, a lay-in on an inbound play by Lady Panther Alexis Betts sliced the lead to four. After Smith scored on a close-range basket for the Lady Chargers, a Hickman free throw reduced the gap back to five (46-41).

The hosts were able to force three turnovers down the stretch, but were unsuccessful in capitalizing at the hoop and free throw line. Meanwhile, two lay-ups by Smith and an assist to teammate Brianna Bagby stamped a 6-0 run to end the game with the scoreboard favoring the visitors.

After the game, Lady Panther head coach VaShaun Otey spoke about the effort put in by his team and the miniscule gap that determined the outcome.

“We played an excellent game tonight up until the last two minutes,” he said. “Our effort level just dropped those last two minutes. It just wasn’t good.

“Tonight, we came out a little too complacent to my liking on offense, but we did extremely well defensively and rebounding the ball,” Otey added. “I hope they learn from this experience and understand that they have more effort to win a game. But overall, I am pleased with them because this is a young team and they are learning.”

Charles City (5-13) received a game high 21 points from Hickman. Bradby contributed eight, Brown added seven, Betts contributed three, and Jaelah Wyatt chipped in with two.

Middlesex’s Smith and Self finished in double figures with 17 and 12, respectively.