By By Matthew Nascone
The Escambia Academy Lady Cougars struggled in their opening game of the Holiday Classic in Monroeville. They took on Monroe Academy and lost 40-29 in the first round of the tournament, but they won the consolation game in the final seconds to grab third place in the tournament. Glenwood High School won the tournament.
Lady Cougars 43 – Sparta 41
The Lady Cougars (7-3) lone all-tournament team selection, Heather White, won the game for EA after she was fouled in the waning seconds of the game. She knocked down two free throws to break the 41-41 tie and give the Lady Cougars the 43-41victory. She was 9-for-10 from the charity stripe in the game.
"She is our leadership out there," EA head coach Andy Gorum said. "She holds our team together and she did a great job of that against Sparta. And she is really good from 15 feet out. But it was really hard to decide on only one girl for the all-tournament selection because all the girls play so well."
White ended the tournament with 30 points scored to lead the Lady Cougars. She led the way against Sparta with 19 points. Clare Jones and Jordan Jaye scored eight points each, Morgan Dorriety added seven points and Katie Smith had one point.
Jaye grabbed 10 rebounds, Jones had six rebounds, Smith contributed four rebounds and Dorriety and White added one rebound each.
Gorum said the pressure the Lady Cougars got on Sparta forced a lot of mistakes.
"I saw they couldn't handle the pressure in their first game against Glenwood and we kept the pressure on," he said. "It worked, they turned the ball over and we got the easy baskets."
That pressure allowed EA to steal the ball 25 times during the afternoon. And those steals led to victory for EA.
Monroe 40 – Lady Cougars 29
In the opening game of the tournament, the Lady Cougars had their five-game winning streak snapped against Monroe Academy by the count of 40-29.
"We had our shots, but we got into foul trouble," Gorum said. "The shots just did not fall for us."
Heather White again led the scoring with 11 points. Clare Jones scored nine points and grabbed a team-high seven rebounds. Jordan Jaye added six points and three rebounds. Morgan Dorriety had three points and Katie Smith grabbed four rebounds.
The Lady Cougars do not have another game until after Christmas when they play in the Lee-Scott Academy Tournament Dec. 28-30 in Auburn.