Saturday, Jan. 21, 2012

Holly Springs girls runs past PC

The Holly Springs girls basketball team played clutch in the fourth quarter to beat Panther Creek 51-44 on Friday and move into second place in the Tri-Nine Conference.

The Golden Hawks, who sank 14 of 17 free throws during the final period, are 8-2 in the conference and 12-5 overall.

The Catamounts (11-6, 7-3) lost to Holly Springs for the second time this season.

"This was a big conference win and we're very excited to come out of here on top," said Holly Springs senior Sirenna McLean, who scored 12 points, including two big fall-away jumpers in the second half.

Golden Hawks sophomore Kiara Leslie led the winners with 15 points, including key free throws in the fourth quarter. Junior guard Linnea Hoops (11 points) nailed three 3-pointers, including one from the corner that put Holly Springs ahead 42-38 with under two minutes left.

Panther Creek responded, as senior captain Kayla Seymour scored six of her 11 in the final 1:07, but McLean, Kayla Jordan and Leslie kept pace with perfect foul shooting to ice the game.

"I'm proud of the girls for their effort and knocking those shots down the stretch," said Holly Springs coach Richard Young. "It was a must-win coming off a disappointing loss to Cary. We needed this to keep second place in the conference."

The Golden Hawks led by nine early, but at halftime nursed a 22-21 advantage.

The Catamounts took a 29-28 lead into the final period. They had a 38-37 lead following a Jordan Webb free throw with 2:45 remaining, but a Hadiya Howard jump shot and Hoops' clutch 3 put Holly Springs ahead for good.

Center Allie Tuttle led Panther Creek with 12 points.

"Our girls responded after the slow start and handled adversity well," said Panther Creek coach Geoff Bowman. "Our defense, led by Kayla Seymour, really stepped up and played excellent."

Panther Creek will play Apex and Holly Springs will travels to conference-leading Green Hope next Friday.