The Capital City Lady Cavaliers were looking for a spark.
Natiyah Ewing gave it to them.
The freshman hit a big 3-pointer midway through the third quarter Tuesday afternoon to help Capital City to a 49-37 victory against the Helias junior varsity in the loser’s bracket semifinals of the Jefferson Bank Holiday Tournament at Capital City High School.
“She’s a freshman that stepped up,” Capital City coach Ashley Agee said. “She’s very athletic and we’re working on some things with her. It’s great to see her step up and do some good things because she has that ability.
“And it gives our team a boost of energy when they see a freshman do those things.”
Capital City was scheduled to face Jefferson City in the game. But Hickman had to pull out of the tournament Tuesday due to COVID-19 concerns and since the Lady Jays lost to the Kewpies in Monday’s opening round, Jefferson City took their place in the winner’s bracket.
So the Helias JV team joined the field about three hours before game time.
“We just had to go out and play ball,” Agee said. “That can be tough for a young team like we have, you need a little preparation.”
Capital City never trailed Tuesday. The Lady Cavaliers scored the first five points of the game on their way to a 13-5 advantage after the first quarter.
But Helias’ JV, which had just six players, hung around in the second quarter, outscoring Capital City 13-8 and trailed just 21-18 at the half.
“We have a bad habit at times of playing to the level of our competition and maybe coming in thinking we’re playing a junior varsity team, things might be easy,” Agee said. “But we needed to remember with our youth, we’re kind of a junior varsity team as well.”
It was a no-win situation for Capital City. A varsity team should beat a JV team.
“They felt the pressure,” Agee said.
Capital City led 25-24 midway through the third quarter before Ewing came on to hit her 3-pointer on her first shot of the game.
And while the Helias JV got a bucket on its next possession, Capital City then closed the third quarter with an 11-0 run to push its lead to double digits at 39-26.
Capital City led by 10 or more points the entire fourth quarter.
“We need to do a better of job of taking control of games and winning like we should,” Agee said.
Natalie Allison paced Capital City with 12 points, while Kyla James added 10 points and a team-high six rebounds. Ewing had seven points.
“It wasn’t pretty, but we came out of it with a win and that’s the most important thing,” Agee said.
Capital City will face St. Joseph Benton in the fifth-place game at 2:30 p.m. today.
“We’re going to have to play better,” Agee said. “They’re an impressive team defensively and a set team on offense. You have to get up at them.
“They’re strong, they’re physical and we’re going to have to play ball.”
Lauren Verslues had a game-high 17 points for the Helias JV, who will play the Blair Oaks varsity in the seventh-place game at 1 p.m. today.