East Bladen’s Lady Eagles (30-0), the top seed in the NCHSAA Class 2A Play-offs, host No. 5 seed Jacksonville Northside (24-3) Tuesday at 6 p.m. in a fourth round game.
In past seasons the fourth round or Eastern Regional Semi-final game would be played at the Regional site which has been Fayetteville in recent years, but this year the NCHSAA is playing the Semi-finals at the home gym of the higher seeded team.
Saturday night East Bladen fell behind 18-4 early in the second period, before coming to life with a 27-1 blitz and eventually posting a 59-38 victory over No. 9 seed Reidsville.
Seniors Lacey Suggs (31 points and 13 rebounds) and Abby Ward (21 points and 8 steals) sparked the East Bladen rally. Suggs averages 22.6 points, 9.1 rebounds, 4.5 assists and 5.1 steals to lead the Lady Eagles. Ward contributes 9.1 points, 6.7 assists and 5.8 steals per game.
Other key Lady Eagles are: freshman Ja’Tyra Moore-Peterson (9.1 points and 3.7 rebounds), senior Christiana Cromartie (6.3 points, 5.7 rebounds and 4.2 blocked shots), senior Miller Heustess (3 points and 3 rebounds) and junior Emily Scott (5.3 rebounds).
Junior guard Kayla Stephens leads the Northside offense averaging 22 points, 5 assists, 4 rebounds and 3.4 steals per game. Timia Grant, a 5-9 junior, contributes 9 points, 9 rebounds and 3 steals per game.
Six-foot senior Erin Bowerman pulls down 7.2 rebounds and 6.2 points per game. Senior Kourtney Mitchell, a 5-7 forward, adds 6 points and 5.5 rebounds.
The Lady Monarchs lost to Clinton 61-60, to Class 3A Havelock 51-50 and 44-39 to conference foe Croatan. Against common foes that lost to East Bladen Northside beat Wallace-Rose Hill 61-31 and North Brunswick three times by scores of 55-36, 65-58 and 50-23
In the play-offs Northside has beaten Wilson Beddingfield 42-21, Bartlett-Yancey 68-39 and Bertie 54-36.
The last meeting between Northside and East Bladen was in a Sectional Final in 2011, when Lady Eagle star Courtney Melvin scooped up a loose ball and beat the buzzer with the winning basket in a 48-47 East Bladen victory.
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