Panthers punch ticket to semifinals

Updated: March 23, 2011 9:28AM

Ah, the benefits of a well-placed timeout.

Case in point: In Tuesday night's Roosevelt sectional quarterfinals, the host Panthers had made a mini-run on Hammond to tie the game at 16-16 early in the second quarter, then got stagnant in running their offense.

Off the bench came Roosevelt coach Melonie Martin. Timeout, Panthers.

"I just told them to settle down and just run the game plan," Martin. "We had to do a better job defensively because we knew Hammond was rebuilding this year and didn't have the ball-handling they normally would have."

And settle down the Panthers did to the tune of a couple of monster runs to help punch their ticket to Friday's semifinals with a 58-33 win over the Wildcats, Roosevelt's third straight win and their fourth in the last five.

"I'm not trying to be conceited but I think we can go to the regionals and further," Panthers junior forward Takita Lenoir said. "We do have the talent."

There are two other reasons Lenoir feels so confident. One is that Roosevelt (15-6) beat every team in its sectional bracket during the regular season (including a 56-19 win over Clark, its Friday opponent, in late November). Secondly, it never hurts to have a hot shooter like Lenoir, who had five 3-point shots and a game-high 22 points.

But it was teammate Kelly Moten's strong second quarter that helped break the game open. The combination of Dominique Coleman hitting a couple of 3-pointers and Emeral Holmes' five points gave the Wildcats a 14-9 lead at the end of one. But Moten's 12 second-quarter points (including two treys of her own) led Roosevelt to a 19-4 run in the second and third quarters to break the game open.

Moten wound up with 18.

"We played hard but we just kept turning the ball over," said Hammond coach Tony Chase, whose Wildcats lost to Roosevelt for the second time this season. "You have to give Roosevelt credit because they kept making the hustle plays and that's what it boiled down to. We were step slow some times and because of that, at one time we were up by one and then you're down by eight."

The Panthers stepped up their defense from midway through the second quarter on, forcing 22 turnovers.

"We had to make some plays on defense," Martin said. "Lenoir has been one of our go-to players all season long and she's been stepping up when she's been needed."

For the Wildcats (7-12), who won four straight sectional titles under Chase until the last two rebuidling seasons, Holmes finished with 11 points while Coleman and Tityana Miller wound up with seven points each.

"We had to build momentum so we knew we had a job to do," Lenoir said. "When we got off to a slow start, coach told us to just calm down and get back into our game."

Wallace takes on Gavit in the other semifinal game Friday.

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