Homestead and South Side had been the two best teams in the SAC leading into this tournament. Both made it to the championship for a heavyweight fight for SAC supremacy. The teams kept things close to the end, but ultimately the Lady Spartans proved to be too much for South Side, as they cut down the net for the 4th time since joining the conference. It was another big night for senior Sydney Graber, who crashed the boards for 9 rebounds and worked her way to the foul line, helping her total 17 points on the night. Junior Ayanna Patterson also saw her shots fall for 15 points. Together, they made for over half of Homestead’s points in their 52-43 win over the Lady Archers. Interim head coach Kara Ankenbruck spoke afterward on her team being able to win, even without coach Rod Parker.
“Big shoes to fill obviously, filling in for him. Luckily I have a great group of girls with the energy and loudness her today. I was trying to coach, but they had to rely on their maturity and work together. A lot of times I’m sure they couldn’t even hear me when I was saying stuff. All the credit goes to the girls, they came out and they wanted it, and this is one of the goals they set for themselves at the beginning of the year and they came out and won it.”
Parker was actually in attendance to watch his team throughout the tournament and he celebrated with them afterward.
For South Side, this should be only a small roadblock, with Juanita Goodwell’s team performing at a high level again this season. Olivia Smith finished with 20 points, leading all scorers in the game, but the real story for South Side was senior Jaci Jones reaching 1,000 points in her high school career. She had 41 points that morning in their semifinal matchup against Northrop, the most between the girls and the boys in the tournament.
“All the credit to South Side, they came out and played a really good game, they’re coached by a really great staff,” Ankenbruck said. “We knew they were going to give us a game and we had to come out and take care of the ball. One of the big things we talked about was making sure we valued every possession. By doing that they didn’t have any unforced turnovers and we took care of the ball on the offensive end. On defense, we had to lock up and switch a lot and make sure we were communicating, and we did that.”
The Spartans and Archers will meet again on January 10 at South Side. But for the time being, Homestead has earned bragging rights as they sit atop the SAC with a 12-1 record. South Side falls to 9-3, but showed everyone that they are a close second and a threat to Homestead next time they square off.
