MINT HILL, NC – The Independence basketball team defeated the Lady Bulldogs 58-38 in their third meeting of the season with a 20-point blowout primarily earned in the second half of the rivalry matchup. The Lady Patriots are now 23-2 overall, and 13-0 against conference competition. They now will face off against new conference rival Charlotte Catholic for the 4A Conference 59 Tournament Championship.
Indy beat the Lady Cougars twice during the regular season going head-to-head, and will pursue the trifecta on Friday night down in “The Pit.” Independence won the regular season conference championship going undefeated 12-0. However, beating a very good Catholic team a third time in one season will not be an easy task. The Lady Cougars are determined for some sweet revenge to put a blemish on the Patriots outstanding season.
This will be the second consecutive season the two teams will meet in the Conference Tournament title game. Charlotte Catholic won the big game last year, and Independence is surely motivated to win the title, and become the first Lady Patriot team to go undefeated in the long history of the program winning the conference tournament.
The Butler game was hard-fought and with plenty of emotion. However, the more talented and deep bench Lady Patriots began to wear down their arch-rival as the game progressed.
The Pats overcame a slow start to this contest, but were led in the first half by Jessica Worthey who played possibly her best game of the season. “Mr. Ron, long time Indy photographer said, she was outstanding, best game I have seen her play.” He does not miss a game, so we will take his remarks as spot on.
The turning point of this game came from the Indy bench, Coach Galvani-Lewis called on senior Lily Gorum, she entered the game and quickly scored 4 points in the second period, this extended the Pats lead to 8 points, they never looked back again. Independence took a 29-19 advantage at the intermission.
At the start of the second half Kamryn Kitchen and Worthey drilled 3-pointers, along with excellent contributions from Lola Cabaniss-Ali 5 points, and Hannah Moss 4 in the period. This is when Indy took complete control of this basketball game. Cabaniss-Ali dominated under the boards, and inside the paint for the Pats. She had a double-double scoring 10 points and hauling down 12 rebounds in the contest.
The final period belonged to Pats junior Chloe Moss who scored 8 points to extend Indy’s lead and domination of the Lady Bulldogs.
Jessica Worthey had 15 points and grabbed 10 rebounds for a double-double, Cabaniss-Ali 10, Chloe Moss 10, Kamryn Kitchen 8, Hannah Moss 8, Gorum 4, Brimmer 2, Clark 1 for Independence. While Brooklyn Saunders led all scorers with 17 points, Chloe Ross 10 with 11 rebounds for a double-double, Jessica Ralda 9, and Sydney Reynolds 2 with 11 rebounds for Butler.
