South Regional girls: Enterprise rallies to upset Davidson
Second-year Enterprise girls coach Allen Catrett has just asked his team to continue to get better this season.
Mission accomplished.
The Wildcats are within one win of the final four.
Enterprise rallied from a 26-18 halftime deficit to knock of No. 6 Davidson 45-41 on Thursday in the Class 7A South Regional semifinals at Garrett Coliseum in Montgomery.
“This is a huge win for us,” Catrett said. “We started 3-5 this year. At the Christmas break, we were 9-9. We just kept improving. We fell behind early today. We didn’t give up, and we found a way to finish. Now we are one game closer to an opportunity to go to Birmingham.”
Enterprise (20-12) will play the winner of the other semifinal game between Prattville and Mary G. Montgomery at 9 a.m. Tuesday. That game was postponed Thursday due to the threat of inclement weather in the state. It will be played at 2 p.m. Saturday at the Cramton Bowl Multiplex.
Davidson finished 27-5.
“I’m not sure what happened,” veteran Warriors coach Charlie Shipp said. “We didn’t show up today. We haven’t played well the last few games. A couple of weeks ago, we went and beat Biloxi, one of the best teams in Mississippi. We just picked the wrong time to not come to play.”
The Wildcats outscored Davidson 16-10 in the third quarter to close the gap, then took the lead for good at 40-39 on Makayla Bass’ jumper with 4:31 left. The Warriors went the final 5:38 without a basket.
Brooklyn Kemmerlin hit two free throws in the final seconds to cement the win. She led all scorers with 19 points.
“No. 2 just wanted it,” Shipp said. “She took over the game. She didn’t want to lose.”
Kemmerlin picked up her third foul in the second quarter and played the entire second half with three. She also had four rebounds and two assists.
“She’s a ballplayer,” Catrett said. “She stepped it up today, and that is no surprise. We know that she has that potential. She played a complete game and played good defense after picking up that third foul.”
Star of the Game: Kemmerlin was the key player. She hit 3-of-4 3-pointers and 4-of-6 free throws.
Stat sheet: Enterprise – Sophomore center Sarah Amos finished with 11 points and seven rebounds. Bass had seven points, nine rebounds and four steals. Aziya Purcell also had seven rebounds. Davidson – Cristyle Mauldin had 10 points, nine rebounds and three steals. Janice Adjessom had eight points. Awa Diouf had five steals and five rebounds.
By the numbers: Enterprise shot 38 percent from the floor (15-of-40), 80 percent from 3-point range (4-of-5) and 65 percent (11-of-17) from the foul line. Davidson shot 27 percent from the field (12-of-45), 16 percent from 3-point range (3-of-19) and 67 percent from the free throw line (14-of-21). Enterprise outrebounded the Warriors 37-30. The teams combined for 37 turnovers.
They said it:
“We came out with a few nerves in the first half. Davidson shot the ball well. We came out in the second half and stepped up and started making some plays and were able to get some defensive stops.” – Catrett.
“I’m not sure what happened. I don’t know if we were overlooking them or what. We missed seven free throws, and that was big. We lose four good seniors from this team, but we have some good freshmen coming I expect to step up and two good juniors I expect to take us to the final four.” – Shipp.