Dothan defeats Lady Cats in overtime

The Enterprise Lady Cats lost 44-32 against Dothan Jan. 27 in overtime.

"At times, I thought we played well defensively," EHS girls basketball coach Jeff Keller said. "At times I thought we put ourselves in position to get good looks and certainly had a chance in the fourth quarter to put it away, but we didn’t do that."

Enterprise was aggressive in the early going, and forced turnovers on the first four Lady Tiger possessions.

Those turnovers turned into four points, thanks to baskets from Essence Alexander and Jayla Flowers.

"We knew who (Dothan's) two main players were, (guards Kyra McGlon and Iveonna Turner)," Keller said. "We really just played our defensive rules of being aware of where those two (players) were. If they put it on the floor to give early help, to make them pick it up and not drive it to the basket. That’s kind of what we were emphasizing."

Dothan scored its first basket to cut the EHS lead in half before Korynn Hill hit a shot.

The Lady Tigers made three of their next four shots from the foul line to cut their deficit to 6-5 with 1:15 in the first quarter.

Jeide Amos ran the floor and scored to give the Lady Cats an 8-5 lead, but Dothan hit a long 3 at the buzzer to tie the game 8-8 at the end of the first quarter.

Keke Washington hit a free throw to start the second quarter before Dothan took an 11-9 lead.

Enterprise then went on a 6-0 run thanks to shots from Alexander and Shay Teh.

Dothan made a pair of free throws with 1:21 to play in the frame.

The Lady Cats took a 15-13 advantage into the locker room at halftime, where Keller said the team talked about offensive and defensive strategies.

"I told them at halftime I knew they would come back in man to man at some point," he said. "We talked about whether their picking us up full-court what we need to do and with half-court. It’s stuff we’ve worked on in practice all year long. We talked about that. We talked about defensively what we needed to key in on. One of those things was keep them off of the glass."

Washington scored the first basket of the third quarter before the Lady Tigers went on an 8-2 run and forced a 21-21 tie at the end of the third quarter.

Gwen Mitchell scored to stop the streak and start an 8-0 run for the Lady Cats, which gave them a 29-21 advantage.

"We had patience," Keller said. "We got the ball inside. I think those types of things helped us considering what they were running. That’s what we needed to do, attack offensively, and we did that. We got some transition baskets as well. Those things helped."

Dothan then went on an 8-0 run of its own to whittle EHS' edge to 29-28 before Mitchell banked in a jumper.

"I thought it was multiple things," Keller said of Dothan's run. "Obviously, they hurt us on the glass. That was a big thing. They got second-and-third-chance opportunities."

A 4-1 Dothan run down the stretch forced overtime after the score was knotted 32-32 at the end of regulation.

The offensive patience Keller applauded earlier in the game appeared to run out for the Lady Cats down the stretch.

"We weren’t patient offensively," he said. "We rushed the shots. Clearly I haven’t done a very good job in making sure they know time and score, about the certain shots you don’t take when you have a lead like we have. That hurt us, because when we missed those it led to transition baskets for them. The combination of those things led them to tying it up and sending it to overtime."

Dothan scored 12 points in the overtime period and shut out the Lady Cats for the win.

"Clearly, we struggled with the pressure," Keller said. "That was something that was a big factor. We didn’t handle it well. As a result, they got turnovers and turned them into layups."

Alexander led EHS with 10 points, and Washington followed with nine. Mitchell had five.

Amos, Flowers, Hill and Teh each had two.