Tanya Chilton | The News
Lady Bears and Head Coach Howard Mayo pull out a comeback against the West Wilkes Blackhawks.
PILOT MOUNTAIN — Perseverance paid off Thursday night as the Lady Bears clawed their way back from a seven-point deficit at halftime to win 72-68 against the West Wilkes Lady Blackhawks at the Communication for Education Holiday Classic held at Pilot Middle School.
The Lady Bears led a dramatic comeback after a fourth-quarter run and scored 24 points total in the fourth quarter. Mikalya Seivers scored the game high of 22 points and had four assists against the Lady Blackhawks.
About the fourth-quarter performance, Lady Bears Head Coach Howard Mayo said, “We did a good job of understanding that if we attack the basket and someone has a wide open shot then we would knock them down.”
The Bears outscored the Blackhawks by one point in the third quarter and it ended 54-48 with the Bears behind six points going into the fourth.
The Lady Bears gained momentum early in the third quarter after Jasmine Varney hit two three-pointers in a row. In the first three-pointer, Varney pulled the team within five points of the Blackhawks who were leading 43-38 with 3:31 left to go in the third. This was the closest the Bears had gotten to the Blackhawks in the game.
“We game them different looks and they started playing not to make mistakes. I was pleased that we kept attacking on defense,” Mayo said.
The Lady Bears forced 21 turnovers tonight.
The Lady Blackhawks led at the end of the first quarter by a score of 19-16. In the second quarter, the Blackhawks outscored the Lady Bears by four points and the Bears went into halftime down 29-36.
Mayo said, “I think it is always good to play teams from different conferences and Pilot Middle School is a good setting.”
Stats for the night include Mikalya Seivers with 22 points and four assists; Alex Atkins with 17 points and 10 rebounds; Jasmine Varney, 13 points ; Davi Barbour, 7 points; Symone Simmons with 7 points and five steals; Ayano Shelton with 2 points and five steals; and Dana Brown with 4 points.
The Mount Airy girls play North Wilkes in the second half of the Classic tonight at 7 p.m. at Pilot Mountain Middle School.
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