Capital City celebrated its seniors in style.
The Lady Cavaliers sent off their three seniors with a 48-37 win Friday night against the Mexico Lady Bulldogs at Capital City High School.
“They’ve been the foundation,” Capital City coach Ashley Agee said. “They’re the kids who came in and had no leaders so they had to be the leaders. Not many people know what that’s like. … It’s been big for them to come in here, lay that foundation.”
Gallery: Capital City Girls Basketball vs. Mexico
After Natalie Allison, Kambry Pistel and Rylea Sanning got their roses pregame, they got to work during the game.
Mexico jumped out to a 4-0 lead, but Pistel assisted Jada Anderson for a layup, the first of her co-game-high 11 points, then Sanning kicked the ball out to Addison Jones for a right-wing 3, putting the Lady Cavaliers in front for the first time with 5:28 left in the first quarter.
Messiah Simpson put the Lady Bulldogs back in front with a putback layup, but Anderson scored the game’s next seven points to give Capital City the lead it would not give up.
Anderson’s final points in the run gave Capital City a 12-6 lead with 3:05 left in the first.
The Lady Cavaliers extended to a 17-10 lead going into the first break.
“We stepped on the floor from the beginning with some confidence,” Agee said. “I thought our three seniors played well. Kambry, I didn’t expect to play her much tonight because she’s been hurt for a while, she stepped in and was playing well and I had a hard time pulling her out when she’s playing well on Senior Night.”
Pistel, who returned for Senior Night and was playing with a cast on her left hand after missing multiple games, scored her first four points on a transition layup off a deep pass from Allison and a cutting layup off a pass from Sanning, to put the Lady Cavaliers up 21-14.
Then the Lady Cavaliers held Mexico scoreless for the final 3:24 while scoring three points on three free throws to take a 24-16 lead into half.
Mexico shot 5-of-10 overall and 5-of-6 at the free-throw line in the third quarter to score 16 points, the Lady Bulldogs’ best offensive quarter, but Capital City stayed in front with two of Allison’s three 3s along with layups from Jones, Anderson and Pistel to take a 37-32 lead into the fourth.
“We knew they struggled to shoot outside and wanted to get everything in the paint,” Agee said. “We talked about their flex cuts and back screens, all the things they do that if we just get in the paint, it eliminates 95 percent of that. I think we did a good job there.”
The fourth quarter was almost entirely free throws for the Lady Cavaliers, hitting 6-of-12 attempts in the fourth while adding a layup from Jones off one of Allison’s three assists and a Danijah Fluellen left-corner 3 off a Jones assist. Capital City extended its lead to 46-33 after Fluellen’s 3, then Mexico cut the lead as close as 46-37 after a putback from Claire Hudson, two of her co-game-high 11 points, but the Lady Cavaliers were able to control the ball and play keep away in the final three minutes to claim the win.
“I thought we did a really good job in the fourth quarter of hanging onto the ball,” Agee said. “We work on late-game situations and that’s something we’ve been working on over the course of the past three years. We’ve played from down a lot so playing from up is a whole different ballgame and takes different game management.”
Capital City shot 15-of-47 (31.9 percent) overall, 5-of-18 (27.8 percent) from 3 and 13-of-27 (48.1 percent) at the free- throw line. Mexico connected on 13-of-42 (31 percent) from the field, 1-of-12 (8.3 percent) from deep and 10-of-18 (55.6 percent) at the free-throw line.
The Lady Cavaliers outrebounded Mexico 39-34 and forced 13 turnovers.
Capital City (6-17), which has won three of its past four games, will look to extend a two-game winning streak when it plays at 7:30 p.m. Monday at Father Tolton.
“Our whole schedule is loaded from top to bottom,” Agee said. “… This last couple games, there’s been some teams playing at our level of competition, which has really helped us. Hopefully next year we have some more room for teams at our level especially before Christmas. You have to have success in your program so you can grow from it.”
Mexico (8-15) will play Tuesday at Fulton.