Tupelo girls drop season opener to Alabama champs
Nov. 11—TUPELO — Pleasant Grove had a little something extra to play for on Saturday.
With their head coach absent due to a family tragedy, Alabama's reigning Class 5A champion toughed out a 52-49 win against Tupelo at the Hound Dog Classic.
"Our coach, Walter Hicks, is going through a lot," assistant coach Rico Nelson said. "Big prayers up to him and his family, but this win was for him."
The Spartans (2-1) won despite committing 31 turnovers. Fortunately for them, Tupelo (0-1) couldn't make good on many of those miscues. That was due to a Pleasant Grove defense that tightened up in the second half.
The Golden Wave took a 37-35 lead on Bailey Siddell's jumper with 1:51 left in the third quarter, but their next field goal didn't come until the 2:27 mark of the fourth.
Nadia Norfleet's layup ended the shooting dry spell and cut Pleasant Grove's lead to 48-44. The visitors answered when O'Maya Nelson made a layup with 1:59 left.
Sanyia Smith's steal and layup cut it to 50-46 with 45 seconds left, but the Spartans were able to hold on.
"A lot of it early in the game was nerves, but in the second half we quick attacking them and laid back and played soft," Tupelo coach Matt Justice said. "We've got to do a better job of attacking the rim."
It didn't help that center Lamarah Cleaves, who missed all of last season with a knee injury, stayed in foul trouble. She fouled out with 3:34 left and finished with four points and three rebounds.
Pleasant Grove's big post player, 6-foot senior Tamya Smith, scored 16 points to lead all scorers. The Memphis signee was able to finish out the game despite picking up her fourth foul with 5:21 left in the fourth.
"She's a D-I player, so she's just got to learn to play with four fouls even though we've got four or five minutes left in the game," Nelson said.
Norfleet led Tupelo with 13 points, while Jade Rucker had 11.
Three-Pointers
Turning Point: Tupelo trailed 41-40 after three quarters and made only two field goals in the final period.
Point Maker: Tamya Smith scored all 16 of her points over the first three quarters.
Talking Point: "We knew coming into this season it was going to take us a couple weeks and a few games to iron out some stuff and figure out who needs to be on the floor and who doesn't. That's on them to get in and practice and figure out the things we're doing wrong and get them corrected this month." — Justice
