EHS girls lose to Dothan Tigers in title game

By By Ricky Adams Ledger Correspondent
Published: February 10, 2009

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DOTHAN - Free throws are expensive.
Especially missed ones.
The Enterprise Lady Wildcats missed a slew of free throws Saturday night in the championship game of the 6A Area 5 tournament and fell to the host Dothan Tigers, 36-34.
“We just needed to make three more free throws and we’d have won,” said Enterprise High coach Melissa White. “It was just that simple.”
Dothan relied on strong defense early on and protecting the ball late to earn the host’s role in Thursday’s sub-region playoff round. Enterprise will travel to Smith’s Station for a 5 p.m. tip-off, White said.
Down 13-5 after the opening period, White made a tactical move.
“We put our younger squad in the game and we cut the Dothan lead to 18-15 at halftime,” White explained. “As the story of this season continued, we dug ourselves a hole early; we didn’t show up until the second half, and that’s the one thing we were trying not to do.”
Enterprise led, 26-25, at the end of the third quarter.
“Defensively, I thought we played well; we held Dothan’s leading scorer to 8 points,” White continued. “We tried to deny them the easy shots, the lay-ups and we were successful.
“But we just couldn’t get our scoring going. When your team’s leading scorer, Ashton Coleman, gets 10 points that’s a problem.
“But despite all that went wrong, all the missed shots and turnovers, we still had a shot to win at the end. We got the ball with 4.5 seconds to play and had time to set up a play, but we turned the ball over and never got off a shot.”
White said she and the team were appreciative of the Enterprise crowd’s enthusiasm Saturday.
“Our fans really showed up for us and we want them to know how good that makes us feel,” White concluded. “Hopefully, we’ll give them something to cheer about Thursday.”
Sub-region winners advance to the regional tournament at Troy next week.