NEESES -- Despite committing over 30 turnovers, the Hunter-Kinard-Tyler Lady Trojans are headed to the Upper State semifinals after defeating Landrum 76-50.

With the Lady Cardinals holding a three-point lead, Shalika Smalls and Melinda Brimfield led the Lady Trojans on an 11-4 run with just over three minutes to play in the opening quarter. That run along with 12 Landrum turnovers put H-K-T up 18-14 heading into the second quarter.

"I think it kind of frustrated our team because they expected to jump out and get an early lead," Lady Cardinals head coach Fhatj Anderson said.

Turnovers became H-K-T's problem in the second quarter. The Lady Trojans turned the ball over seven times before the half. However, Landrum wasn't able to capitalize on the miscues. Meanwhile, Shalika Smalls kept her team ahead by outscoring the entire Landrum team 15-12.

"Anytime a player is hot," H-K-T head coach Jarvis Davis "I'm going to her. It could be Shalika, Melinda, anybody. When they're hot, that's where I'm going."

Smalls finished with 21 first half points to but H-K-T up 37-26 at the half. Even with an 11-point lead, Davis knew the battle hadn't been won just yet.

"I told them great teams play hard," he said. "Nobody's going to come in here and lay down."

Davis was right. The Lady Cardinals came out red hot in the third quarter. Led by Jordan Jenkins and Victoria McDowell, Landrum went on a 10-0 run to start the quarter.

"At halftime, I mentioned that we had to hit free throws, control the ball on offense, and convert baskets on turnovers," Anderson said.

The Lady Cardinals went 5 of 6 from the free-throw line and forced nine turnovers. H-K-T was held to eight points in the first quarter, but the Lady Trojans held on to a 45-41 lead.

"I think we did a good job in the third quarter," Anderson said "We went into a box and 1 and it threw them off."

The window of opportunity for Landrum was open heading into the fourth quarter, but the Lady Cardinals weren't able to take advantage of the given opportunity. Landrum committed 11 turnovers in the quarter thanks

Although H-K-T committed nine turnovers in the final quarter. The duo of Smalls and Brimfield helped the Lady Trojans pull away. The tandem scored 25 of the team's 28 fourth quarter points to seal the victory.

Despite the fourth quarter collapse, Anderson is proud of her team's efforts.

"This was pretty good to say that we had three sophomores, a freshman pulled up from JV who hadn't even been playing all season, and two juniors leading the way," she said. "We'll be back. We have a lot to do, but we will regroup and be back."

For the Lady Trojans, they'll face Great Falls at a neutral site on Tuesday at 7 p.m. Although this will be their first playoff game away from home this season, Davis doesn't believe that will be too much of a problem.

"It doesn't matter where we play at," he said. "We just have to play hard and we've got to play our game.

-- T&D Sports Writer Emery Glover can be reached by e-mail at eglover@timesanddemocrat.com or by phone at 803-533-5532. Check out his blog, Cover 2, at www.thetandd.com. --

HKT (76): Shalika Smalls 39, Melinda Brimfield 25, Whetstone 5, Singleton 2, J. Tyler 2, Dash 1

LHS (50): Kelly Mullins 22, Jordan Jenkins 16, Victoria McDowell 10, Cann 8, Weisner 4

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