Jacksonville, AL – Lady Raiders hold own in first half, but Ider freshman Traylor gets loose for 25 in second half and sends Pleasant Valley to regional defeat
By Al Muskewitz
Things couldn’t have gone better for the Pleasant Valley girls early in their first Northeast Regional game in seven years and there was a real sense an upset could be brewing. The Lady Raiders’ zone was doing its job and it helped them grab an early seven-point lead. Then Ider freshman Makinley Traylor started hitting her stride, the Lady Hornets found their range from the outside (at least better than it had been) and together it spelled bad news for the team from Calhoun County. Traylor scored 25 of her game-high 31 points in the second half and the Lady Hornets hit five of their eight 3-pointers after halftime to put away the Lady Raiders 63-49 in the Class 2A Northeast Regional girls semifinals at Jacksonville State. “We’ve got like 12 or 14 films on them, so we knew she was a player,” PV coach Colton Morris said of Traylor. “In the first quarter I think we held her to zero and the second she ended up getting some.
“I felt like when we tweaked our defense right there (in the second half) it didn’t benefit us much. It sort of hurt us and that’s on me; that ain’t on them. We sort of let her get loose. We had Macey (Roper) in foul trouble, (Rebekah Gannaway) with three at the time it happened and we just couldn’t step up and contest it like we wanted to.“ The Lady Hornets weren’t scoring for a lack of trying. They took 72 shots in the game — twice as many as PV — and 44 3-pointers, many from behind the college line. They grabbed 21 offensive rebounds, but scored only seven second-chance points, and PV actually out-rebounded them 41-35. They took 38 shots in the first half, but PV’s zone gave them fits and they hit only seven. They were 3-of-24 from 3-point range. Traylor was held to six points on 1-of-9 shooting; the one she made was a 3-pointer..
Despite the shooting woes, the Lady Hornets held a one-point lead at the break, but things were about to change. Traylor scored the Lady Hornets’ first 14 points of the second half and they wound up with a 38-34 lead that stretched to eight early in the fourth quarter with the help of back-to-back 3s with Julie Mavity. “It just seemed like through the year we might come out and struggle shooting the ball and then all of a sudden somebody will hit one and we kind of get on a roll,” Ider coach Jamie Pruett said. “It just took a lot longer tonight, it seemed like.” The Lady Raiders got it back within 47-45 with 3:53 left, then Traylor hit a 3, stole an entry pass and took it all the back for a layup on the other end and then had a steal on the next trip down the floor. It was part of a 15-2 closing run that put the game away.
The difference in the halves, Pruett said, was leaning over to Traylor and telling her to take it to the basket. “There’s no coaching when you got somebody who can get to rack like this and they’re out there shooting shots or passing off,” he said. “It’s all about the team, but, hey, if she can get to the basket we’re a lot better team. They came out in the second half, I don’t remember what point it was, I pulled her over to the side and said you’re going to haveto start being aggressive, attacking the rim some. Thank God she did.” While Traylor was doing her thing, Roper and Gannaway were helping the Lady Raiders keep pace. Roper and Gannaway had 24 and 20 points, respectively, in their final high school games. Roper also grabbed a game-high 17 rebounds.
