East Bladen Coach Patty Evers’ 400th coaching victory was overshadowed Thursday night by what that win meant for her Lady Eagle basketball team.
East Bladen’s 57-20 victory over West Bladen completed an undefeated regular season for the Lady Eagles – only the second time during Coach Evers’ career that an East Bladen girls team has accomplished that feat.
“The 400 wins was one of our goals for the season,” said Coach Evers. “But I was more interested in this team’s going undefeated and getting to the state championship game.”
Last year the Lady Eagles reached the Eastern Regionals which was the 9th time in Coach Evers first 3 years that East Bladen has reached the Regionals. Six times the Lady Eagles have reached the Regional finals where they have posted a 4-2 record.
The Jatoya Kemp-led Lady Eagles reached the Class 1-A State Title game in 2007, and the Jazmine Kemp/Courtney Melvin-led teams reached Class 1-A State Finals in 2009 and 2010 and the Class 2-A State Final in 2011.
In her 14 years at East Bladen, Coach Evers’ teams have posted a 327-68 record which is a winning percentage of 82.8%. In her 5 years at Tar Heel High, the Lady Panthers were 73-42, including a 21-3 season in 2000. Her record for the entire 19 years is now 400-110 –a winning percentage of 78.4%.
After Thursday’s game Coach Evers said, “Getting the 400th win on our home floor when it was supposed to be at West Bladen means a lot, and Coach (Pam) Stephens is a great friend of mine and it’s just a great relationship between the two schools.”
The regular season finale would have been at West Bladen if the Lady Knights’ gym hadn’t been shut-down due to an infestation of bats.
Now it is on to the play-offs for the Lady Eagles as they continue to pursue that elusive state championship. Junior Lacey Suggs sparks the East Bladen offense scoring over 22 points a game.
Senior center Imani Turner-Dobson anchors the interior game with 8 rebounds and 8 blocked shots per game. Senior forward Abbey Norris topped the Lady Eagle offense in the 400th win with 19 points.
Junior point guard Abby Ward dishes out 4.4 assists per game, and junior Christiana Cromartie rounds out the Lady Eagle starting five and adds 4 rebounds and 3 assists per game.
But it is defense that the Lady Eagles are known for. Opponents have averaged only 25.5 points per game this season, while the East Bladen offense has averaged 55.7 points per game. That is an average winning margin of over 32 points per game.
East Bladen will open Four County Conference Tournament play Monday night at 6:30 against Union.
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