Coal City – In matchup that was likely to be decided by each team’s pair of standout scorers the Patriots came out on top – the host ones.
Lacey Goodson and Harmony Mills combined for 34 points Friday evening as Independence pulled away from Midland Trail late in a 50-35 Class AA Region 3 semifinal in Coal City.
The win sends the Patriots to the Class AA Region 3 co-final where they’ll face No. 1 James Monroe on Thursday in Lindside.
While Goodson and Mills found their grooves in the second half, Indy’s gameplan of limiting Kenzie Chaffin (17.9 ppg) proved effective as she was held to just two points through the first 28 minutes of the game.
That hampered Trail’s inside-out game as sharpshooter Raelyn Morris (17.1 ppg) was held to just nine points on 3-of-18 shooting.
“We knew they had Morris and her as their big duo,” Indy head coach Mark Cuthbert said. “We set out to stop them and Kenna (Price) got in foul trouble early and Peyton (Raban) just stepped up and I think once we put Peyton on (Chaffin), she shut her down really well. We were trying to double her and make the other kids beat us.”
Cuthbert’s gamble paid off as Trail shot 14-for-50 (28 percent) from the field. The Trail offense bottomed out in the second quarter, netting just two field goals (17 percent) in the frame and watching an 8-6 lead turn into a 20-13 deficit.
“We guys couldn’t make the easy shots,” Trail head coach John Mark Kincaid said. “The post (Chaffin) who makes a lot of those, she got fouled. They was hanging all over her and we couldn’t get a call. They were mugging our guards up front too. I’m not complaining about officiating.
“He said it was one of the roughest games they had all year and I was like, ‘It didn’t seem rough at all to me.’ But I think if we played this team 10 times, we beat them five. We just didn’t make shots and they’ve got really good players in (Mills) and (Goodson). Good kids too. I’m not taking anything away from them. It’s just tough.”
After slogging through the first quarter and going scoreless over the first five minutes of the game Indy knotted it at 8-8 at the start of the second quarter on a Harmony Mills layup. Raban followed with one of her own for the lead and unfortunately for the visitors they couldn’t discover the same strike that ignited Indy.
A jumper from Goodson pushed the advantage out to 20-11 before Trail second field goal of the quarter, right before the buzzer, made it a 20-13 game at the break.
Out of the intermission Trail found life. Abby Parcell netted five quick points and the visiting Patriots pulled within a point at 24-23. It all unravelled from there.
An 18-2 run that spanned into the fourth quarter put Indy ahead 42-25, an insurmountable lead on this night. Starring during that stretch was Goodson who scored 10 of her game-high 20 points during the run.
“They settled in, they ran he offense a little better a they started looking for each other instead of trying to be 1-on-1,” Cuthbert said. “And when you play together it’s hard to guard five when you’re moving in sync.”
Ahead for the Patriots is a James Monroe team that ranks atop the Class AA coaches poll and has for most of the season, brining in a 22-1 record.
“Their atmosphere will be a lot more different,” Cuthbert said. “There will be a lot more purple and black but this is what you play for. We’re one game away from Charleston and anything can happen in this game.”
Goodson led all scorers with 20 points while Mills netted 14. Parcell led Trail with nine.
Midland Trail
Zoey Bragg 2, Harmony Mills 14, Peyton Raban 6, Lacey Goodson 20, Kenna Price 8
Independence
Kenzie Chaffin 8, Raelyn Morris 7, Presley Walker 5, Abby Parcell 9, Jessi Mooney 4, Brooke Ewing 2
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