Holly Springs girls basketball bounces back to beat Southern Durham
Coming off of its first conference loss of the season, Holly Springs’ girls basketball team bounced back in a dramatic fashion, defeating Big 8 3A leader Southern Durham 66-58 at the Jordan Falcons MLK Classic on Monday afternoon.
Holly Springs’ Caila Spruill led all players in points (32), rebounds (11) and 3-pointers (four).
“She balled like I’ve never seen before,” Holly Springs coach Peace Easton said. “She’s the reason we won today.”
Spruill scored 10 of Holly Springs’ 14 second-quarter points to give the Golden Hawks (12-3, 8-1 Southwest Wake 4A) to a 33-32 halftime lead.
Spruill only scored four in the fourth quarter, but made clutch free throws after Southern’s J’Naya Ephraim (14 points, three assists) and Marissa Mackins (18 points, three assists) closed the gap to 61-58 with just under a minute to go.
The Spartans (13-3, 6-0 Big 8), undefeated in the conference, have identified areas to work on heading into the latter half of conference play.
“We’ve got to be more aggressive in the zone, be more active, that’s something we didn’t do in the second and third quarters,” coach Teddy McKoy said. “We have to make better team basketball.”
Turning point
With 1.9 seconds left in the third quarter, Spruill snatched a throw-in that bounced off an unsuspecting Southern player’s head, then hit a 25-footer to cap off a 21-8 run.
They said it
“On the way down here, my mom told me I just don’t shoot enough and that I have a pretty shot. She told me to just shoot it and believe it’ll go in.” – Spruill
Three who mattered
Caila Spruill, Holly Springs: Spruill’s superb shooting and effort on the glass won the game for the Hawks.
Brianna Tate, Holly Springs: The savvy senior point guard recorded 15 points, two rebounds and two assists.
Addis Lemons, Southern Durham: Lemons had a double-double (10 points, 10 rebounds) while spreading the floor with passing vision uncanny amongst most centers.
By the numbers
19: Southern’s points in the second and third quarters.
80: Spruill’s 3-point percentage.
33-20: Holly Springs’ rebounding advantage.
This story was originally published January 18, 2016 at 4:51 PM with the headline "Holly Springs girls basketball bounces back to beat Southern Durham."