LAUREL HILL — Carver Middle School’s girls basketball team continued to right the ship after a tough start to the season, defeating East Hoke 38-18 on Wednesday night with the help of 11 points from Natalia Rodriguez.
The win was the third in a row for the Lady Eagles, and it evened the team’s record at 3-3 after Carver lost the first three games of the season.
“The confidence is built up now,” said Antoinette Diggs, Carver’s head coach. “I expect us to go to the playoffs, and even to the championship game.”
Carver has three regular-season games left on its schedule. The team hosts Sandy Grove on Thursday before playing at Spring Hill on Monday. Carver will end the regular season by visiting West Hoke on Jan. 31.
Diggs said her team has steadily been improving throughout the season, and many of those improvements were noticeable on Wednesday night.
“Natalia is shooting better,” Diggs said. “Daliyah (Ratliffe) is learning to pass the ball. We have more momentum than we did in the first three games. I think we’re doing awesome this year.”
Sydnee Dial finished with 10 points for Carver. Isabel Allen had nine points, and Ratliffe added eight for the Lady Eagles.
Carver outscored East Hoke 12-2 in the third quarter to take a 30-12 lead. Rodriguez scored five points and Ratliffe scored four points in the third period.
The third-quarter surge helped Carver pull away from East Hoke. Carver outscored the visitors 20-8 in the second half.
Diggs said “working as a team” will be important for the Lady Eagles as they get closer to the playoffs.
Carver’s late rally falls short
A late comeback attempt by Carver’s boys basketball team came up short against East Hoke on Wednesday night, as the hosts lost 50-46.
The loss snapped Carver’s 14-game winning streak. The Eagles are now 5-1 this season.
East Hoke’s Daveon Leggett made a pair of free throws to give his team a 50-35 lead late in the fourth quarter. That’s when Carver’s boys began an 11-0 run that lasted for the rest of the game.
After three consecutive made free throws by Carver, Jhiquez Caldwell knocked down one of two shots at the charity stripe for the hosts. Carver forced a turnover, and Isaac Ferguson made a layup to cut East Hoke’s lead to 50-41 with around one minute left in the game.
Another basket by Ferguson trimmed Carver’s deficit to seven points with 40 seconds on the clock. After a pair of missed free throws on East Hoke’s end of the floor, Carver’s Nick McCall made a 3-pointer to make it 50-46 with 11 seconds left.
Leggett then came up empty in a trip to the free throw line, but Carver couldn’t find a way to score as the game’s final seconds winded down.
Carver held a 24-17 lead at halftime. The hosts led by as much as 20-11 in the second quarter.
“I didn’t see the intensity matched from them in the second half,” said Roshein McClain, Carver’s head coach. “They played a lot harder, like they wanted it more in the second half.”
East Hoke outscored Carver 12-4 in the third quarter.
“That’s not us,” McClain said. “We average 50-something points per game. It just wasn’t us tonight.”
Ferguson finished with 19 points for Carver.
Up next
Carver’s games against Sandy Grove begin at 4:15 p.m. on Thursday. Monday’s doubleheader at Spring Hill begins at 5 p.m., and the season finale at West Hoke starts at 4:15.
