LELAND- Fourth quarter contributions from several Leland Lady Cubs helped them advanced to the second round of the 2A Region 3 finals with a hard fought 56-37 win over the East Union Lady Urchins Monday night. Leland senior guard Camariyah Butler led all scores with 24 points and provided consistent offense all evening. But it was Madison Bush’s timely scoring and defense, Imani Campbell’s interior presence and Jakayla Beal and Janilyia MaAdory’s defense and smarts down the stretch that sealed the victory. “You always need players who have been playing background roles to step up in order to be successful,” said Leland head coach Pantansy Miller Hampton. “We pride ourselves on being able to rise to the challenge in games like we had tonight.”
It was obvious that both teams wanted to push the pace in the early going. In the first half, the Lady Cubs sped the tempo up just a bit too fast for East Union. “That’s what we do,” Miller Hampton said. “We run and play tough defense all night to force teams into doing things that makes them uncomfortable.” Leland jumped out to a quick 8-1 advantage with tough, physical defense and ball pressure. Butler scored five of her team’s first eight points and the Lady Cubs led 14-7 after one quarter of play.
Urchins point guard Kaitie Boatner did an admirable job of breaking the Leland ball hawking defense to keep East Union within striking distance. Boatner’s penetration and passing on the interior helped East Union trim Leland’s lead to 16-11 at the 5:01 mark of the second quarter.
But Leland scored seven unanswered points highlighted by some sweet thievery from Butler as she picked Boatner’s pocket for a steal and easy layup to close the half. Leland led 26-15 at the intermission. Campbell added 10 points for Leland and Boatner led the Lady Urchins with 10.
