Franklin Springs, GA – North Greenville tapped into their late season magic as the eighth seeded Crusaders traveled to Franklin Springs to take on the top ranked Lions. Down the stretch the Crusaders have been sensational winning three of their last four games. As the Conference Carolinas tournament dawned, the Crusaders looked to repeat their performance from last year as the team took down the top ranked Saints.

The game was dominated by the Crusaders as the team took the lead at 5 – 2 and never looked back. The Crusaders played incredibly well as the team shot 52% from the field as a whole and 40% from behind the arc. In the first quarter, the Crusaders got their lead from an early layup from Ayano Shelton (Junior) and a triple from Journey Muhammed (Freshman). Shelton, along with Natalie Averett (Sophomore) and Ty Saunders (Sophomore), opened up a seven-point lead (11 – 4) at the 4:09 mark remining in the quarter. Nearly every time that the Lions made a basket the Crusaders bounced back and stunned the momentum. Karen Donehew (Junior) scored a quick five-points before Kira Bell (Sophomore) entered the game and began her dominant performance.

Bell was absolutely sensational in the first-round game finishing with 16-points and seven rebounds to go along with one steal and assist. It was all about the dribble drive for Bell as she dominated the paint. Nearly all of her 16 points came from within six-feet of the basket and all off of jump stops, pull-up jumpers, and contested layups. Bell got a great match-up in the late second quarter and third quarter as Coach Angel McGowan played a smaller lineup against the slower lineup of Emmanuel. The rest of the second and third quarter was more of the same as the Crusaders toyed with the top ranked Lions. Shot-after-shot the Crusaders stifled any run that the Lions made leading by as many as 14-points. Savannah Hughes (Sophomore), Elizabeth Trentham (Senior), and Haylee Luttrell (Freshman) all got in on the scoring as the Crusaders kept fighting off attacks from the Lions. The third quarter brought a Lion run that tied the Crusaders for the first time since the score was 2 – 2. However, the Crusaders build up another four-point lead to end the period.

In the last period of play, both teams fought back-and-forth as the Crusaders constantly held around a four-point lead for the majority of the quarter. The Crusaders played exceptional in all aspects of the game except for turnovers. Turnovers have been the achilleas heal for the Crusaders all year long and the team’s success has hinged on their ability to protect the ball. As the game entered the final three minutes of play the Crusaders hung on to a two-point lead (69 – 67). A layup at the 2:37 by the Lions tied the game only to be matched by Haylee Luttrell only 26 seconds later. As the game wound down the Lions again made a difficult shot to tie the game off of a turnover by the Crusaders. Again, the Crusaders raced up the court trying to make one more magical run to defeat the top seed in Conference Carolinas, however, turnovers plagued the team as the Crusaders turned the ball over four times in the last minute and a half. At the end of the game the Crusaders fell to the Lions on a last second shot dropping the contest 71 – 73.

In their last contest of the season Kira Bell was the standout of the night scoring 16 points and collecting 7 rebounds. Haylee Luttrell finished with 19 points, 6 rebounds, and 3 assists. Journey Muhammed and Karen Donehew both scored 9 points in the contest along with Ty Saunders 8 points. In her last game of her career Elizabeth Trentham scored 2 points and collected 2 rebounds.

The Crusaders 2019 season comes to a close as the team gave Emmanuel the scare of the evening in the conference tournament. North Greenville finish the season 8 – 21 overall, however, the record does not show how good the Crusaders played throughout the year. The team thrived on hot shooting throughout the year and rebounded the ball extremely well on the defensive side of the ball. As the team loses two seniors, next year’s program will look to follow up on their strengths and cover their weaknesses entering a new season.