Published: 12:56 AM, Sun Mar 07, 2010
East Bladen girls advance to state title game
By Al Myatt
Correspondent
GREENVILLE - Jazmine Kemp scored East Bladen's last seven points after star center Courtney "C.J." Melvin fouled out with 3:15 left and the Eagles advanced to the 2-A girls' state championship game with a 48-43 win over Burlington Cummings at Rose High School on Saturday.
"I was sitting there thinking I let the team down," Melvin said. "But then I saw them step it up. They wanted to win."
Kemp scored 20 points and had 10 rebounds as East Bladen (29-0) held on after the Cavaliers trimmed a 12-point fourth quarter lead to 41-39 on two free throws by Kamia Strickland with 3:05 to go. Kemp followed her own miss with a basket and was fouled with 1:31 remaining. She made the free throw to give the Eagles some breathing room with a 44-39 advantage.
"She's our heart and we had to get her the ball," said East Bladen coach Patty Evers. "She did what she had to do."
Kemp, a junior, converted both ends of a one and one with 40.1 seconds to go for a 46-41 lead. After Cummings' Alexus Vanhook drove to get the Cavaliers within 46-43, Kemp made two more free throws with 16.8 seconds left for the final margin.
"She made some big free throws there at the end for us," Evers said. "Those free throws won the game for us in the end. She has to get herself open and she had a great defensive player on her but we kept trying to give her screens and get the ball to her.
"Jazmine Kemp came through again."
Melvin had 31 points and 15 rebounds in a 61-30 regional semifinal win over Bunn. She and Kemp are cousins.
Kemp was named MVP of the regionals. Melvin, who had 12 points, nine rebounds and lots of defensive attention on Saturday made the all tournament team along with Eagles guard Janet Hatcher, who had six points and five assists.
Hatcher hit a 3-pointer to open the fourth quarter scoring for East Bladen. The 3 gave the Eagles a 34-29 lead and started a 10-0 run. Melvin had a three-point play and Zhane Johnson dropped an 18 footer before Melvin scored again from underneath to push the advantage to 41-29 with 5:52 to go.
"When we got a 12-point lead, I actually thought we had the game," Kemp said. "Then when C.J. fouled out and they started coming back, I got worried. I realized we had to step it up because they were coming back. They wanted it. You could tell they wanted it but we had to keep it in our hands."
Evers said she wasn't as concerned about Melvin fouling out as she was about what had happened to the double-digit advantage as Cummings (24-3) made its run.
"I was concerned about her getting her fifth foul but not to the point that I knew the game was over," Evers said.
Melvin was matched up in the post against Shae Mebane, who had 14 points and 14 rebounds. Jeffries had 12 points in the loss.
The Eagles also lost guard Nyiesha Murchison on fouls with 3:05 to go, forcing Kemp into more ball handling duties down the stretch.
The outcome earned the Eagles a trip to Parker's Barbecue and allowed them to start focusing on playing for a state championship again. East Bladen was runner-up to Bishop McGuiness for the 1-A title in 2009.
"We want to win the state championship," Evers said. "That's been our goal all year long although we haven't really talked about it. We wanted to take it one game at a time."
East Bladen will play defending state 2-A champion Salisbury (28-0) for the title in a battle of unbeaten teams. She may not have been talking about it but Evers took a step toward preparing for the state final last summer.
"I went online and bought a tape of last year's 2-A state championship game," she said.