Second half shooting woes sink Northeast in 46-35 playoff loss to Banks County

A few players remained in the locker room, and a half-dozen people were in the lobby as the concession stand started closing for good.

After Northeast girls basketball head coach Heavenly Whitehead walked into an empty gym and onto a quiet Copeland Court, she emitted a sound of exhaustion as she plopped down on a chair along the sideline for the last time.

In the first half, it didn’t look like it was going to be Whitehead’s finale, but the second half got away from the hosts and Banks County took control for a 46-35 win Tuesday night in the first round of the GHSA Class A-Division I state tournament.

Banks County, which beat Oglethorpe County, Washington County, Rabun County and Model last year as the No. 2 seed en route to a runner-up finish, improved to 15-12 this year. Northeast finished 17-12 in Whitehead’s final season.

She said she told school administration at the end of the last semester that this was it.

“I said I’m going out with my seniors,” she said. 

Any second-guessing? 

“Mmm mmm, this is it.”

Northeast basically shot itself out of advancing. The Raiderettes struggled with shot selection, taking off-balance attempts that they could not get to fall as Whitehead’s gameplan evaporated.

“Bad shots, and bad decisions,” Whitehead said. “And it hurt, because the gameplan was to make smart decisions, look to advance the ball up the court. Just playing team ball.

“We lost that playing team ball, went back to the ‘me, me, me, I, I, I.’ It hurt us.”

Only once did Northeast make two straight shots, when Jada Smith drained a pair of long 3-pointers from the right wing just past the midway point of the first quarter with a timeout in between.

And only once did the Raiderettes score on consecutive possessions, opening the second quarter with a 3-pointer from Kassidy Davis followed by a pair of free throws by Alayla Hooks.

That put Northeast up 15-9, en route to the Raiderettes’ first seven-point lead. Smith’s falling-backward putback gave Northeast a 19-12 lead with 3:41 left in the second quarter, leading to a Banks County timeout as Northeast was playing the kind of ball Whitehead had hoped for.

“I really was looking to see more pressure defense, because to me,  if you keep the tempo up and don’t give them time to make decisions, it falls in your favor and that’s how the lead began to move in our favor,” she said. “When we kicked it up a notch. We didn’t stay there.”

It was a fruitful timeout. Banks County began righting the ship and ended the quarter on a 7-2 run covering the final 2:15 to pull within 21-19 at intermission.

Whitehead hoped that the Raiders might return to form after the intermission.

“For some reason, depending on when we come out of the locker room, we’re kind of flat,” she said. “We know our third and fourth quarters are our most challenging quarters a lot of times.”

The plan is often to take only half of the break before returning to the court.

“Five minutes, four minutes left, so they can get the blood flowing,” she said. “But we stayed in there too long tonight.”

Davis nailed a 3-pointer 40 seconds into the third quarter to make it 24-19, but that was the beginning of the slow end.

Banks County resumed good ball movement against Northeast’s zone, and the result was a trio of 3-pointers, two of which from Janakate Gibson, and the visitors had a 28-24 lead.

The hole seemed a little bigger than only four points because the Raiderettes could mount minimal quality possessions that led to good looks and decent shots. They came up empty on five straight trips, and trailed 33-30 after a third quarter in which they hit two of 11 shots – to 4 of 9 for Banks County, all 3s – and turned it over six times.

“It wasn’t because we couldn’t play the game,” Whitehead said. “It was because we lost sight of the will to finish, because we became complacent with, ‘Well, it’s over.’

“And I kept trying to tell them it ain’t over. We still got a fighting chance. But the fight just wasn’t there.

The sluggishness increased, and the Raiderettes went nearly five-and-a-half minutes without a point, the deficit reaching 10 by the time Davis hit a 3 from the right wing. That didn’t break the slump of shot selection and some unforced turnovers.

Banks County displayed eyebrow-raising balance. Three players had eight points, one had seven and three more had five.

Davis led Northeast with 13 while Smith, held scoreless in the second half, finished with 12.

Whitehead said it was Northeast’s worst game of the season overall, coming off a trip to the Region 2-A/Division I tournament finale, a 52-42 loss to East Laurens to end a five-game winning streak.

Jitters were a concern in that game, and Tuesday night.

“I wanted us to come out and play our game,” Whitehead said. “I wasn’t that surprised. The game against East Laurens, we wre a little nervous because it was a big game.

“I just felt if we would have played our game, it could have been so much closer against East Laurens. I was looking to get back to them. So I hate this.”