NASHVILLE – White House Heritage has fielded a girls basketball team for 17 seasons.
In all 17 seasons, the Lady Patriots have failed to advance past the region semifinals.
Monday brought more of the same as Heritage dropped a 45-42 loss at Maplewood to end its season in the Region 5-AA semifinals. The Lady Patriots finished with a 23-8 overall record.
“We played hard and gave it everything we had,” Heritage coach Clay Head said. “We were vastly outsized. But we played to the very end.”
A scoreless stretch that lasted nearly eight minutes and parts of two quarters costed the Lady Patriots. After Staten Holmes hit a layup to cut Maplewood’s lead to 19-18 with 3:38 remaining in the second, Heritage did not score again until Holmes made another layup midway through the third. The Lady Panthers had been on a 12-0 run and jumped out to a 30-19 lead by then.
However, Heritage did not go away easily. The deficit got as large as 15 late in the third, but the Lady Patriots finally found their offense in the fourth. Kinsley Caruthers a hit a pair of threes and senior Kelsey Russell added another to trim Maplewood’s advantage to six points with 1:57 left.
“We started attacking and playing aggressive,” Head said. “Not that we weren’t doing that at the end of the third, but we pushed the tempo and the effort. That’s the style that we needed to play the whole game.”
Heritage eventually ran out of time. Maplewood guard Larose Morrow hit a pair of free throws and the Lady Panthers played just enough defense to hang on for the win. Maplewood (30-5) went on to beat Westmoreland 42-34 to take the Region 5-AA title on Thursday.
Holmes and Russell finished with 12 points apiece. Alex Green added 11. The Lady Patriots shot just 27 percent (12-of-44) from the field and committed 14 turnovers. They also went 13-of-24 (54 percent) from the charity stripe.
The team’s five-member senior class goes down as the winningest in program history. That group, including Green, Russell, Holmes, Eimy Esparza and Sadie Short, went 85-38 in their four seasons.
“Their leadership, work ethic and attitudes were outstanding,” Head said. “I’ve never had a group that’s been this great across the board. They complemented each other really well, both in their personalities and in their play on the floor.”
BOX SCORE
WH Heritage (42): Staten Holmes 12, Kelsey Russell 12, Alex Green 11, Kinsley Caruthers 7.
Maplewood (45): Larose Morrow 13, Zariah Cameron 11, Renetta Watson 10, Ty Gardner 6, Tyler Holt 3, Larissa Houston 2.
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