COLUMBIA -- Shalika Smalls entered Saturday's Class A final at the Colonial Center the center of attention.

Not only had the Hunter-Kinard-Tyler junior averaged 34.5 points in the playoffs, she also "guaranteed" a 47-point effort in the final against C.E. Murray.

Once the final buzzer sounded, it was Smalls' fellow All-State counterpart who was getting the spotlight after coming close to a quadruple double in leading the Lady War Eagles to their second state title. Senior Schwanna Dunmore matched Smalls with 28 points, but also had 10 steals, dished out nine assists and grabbed eight rebounds to help C.E. Murray defeat H-K-T 77-61.

In avenging a loss in the 2005 final to the Lady Trojans, the Lady War Eagles also got 25 points and 15 rebounds from Kimberly Rious, whose effort in the paint helped minimize the game-time loss due to illness of second-leading scorer and All-State forward Arteesha Donaldson.

"When she said that, we were holding opponents to at least 45 points per game, but when she said she was going to score 47, that was a little bit I guess emotional or she needed something to pep herself up," C.E. Murray head coach Darren Mayzck said. "But, we weren't worried about that because we know when we play defense, we're going to play defense."

A contest slowed down by constant whistles (a total of 50 personal fouls were called and the teams combined to make just 31-64 free throws) and foul trouble also hampered Smalls, particularly in the first half when she scored just one field goal and had eight points. Despite the efforts of Melinda Brimfield and Sheila Jamison, who finished with 18 and 10, respectively, the Lady Trojans found themselves playing catchup for virtually the entire game.

A 13-0 run late in the first half by C.E. Murray pushed its lead up as many as 16 points before Jamison's steal and layup before halftime made it 36-22.

"My main concern was boxing out," H-K-T head coach Jarvis Davis said. "We did a terrible job and they did a great job under the boards. I thought we got beat under the boards a lot. They got a lot of second chances."

H-K-T came out firing in the second half, scoring the first six points to close within eight. A 12-2 run capped by a three-pointer by Smalls brought the Lady Trojans to within 62-57 with less than four minutes left in the fourth quarter.

Down the stretch, Dunmore took over the game as she contributed to all 12 unanswered points scored by C.E. Murray. Dunmore had seven points and three no-look assists to Rious during the game-deciding run.

"When you have only three seniors and everybody else is 10th-graders and ninth-graders, you look for mistakes," Mazyck said. "But I wasn't worried about the closeness (of the game) because I have a leader in Schwanna Dunmore. She's been there for me for the past five years. She knows how to motivate and encourage other players. She does a wonderful job at that."

C.E. Murray ended the season 30-1, while H-K-T finished 22-6 but optimistic for the future as it loses just one senior.

"We're a young team and young teams make those mistakes that we made," Davis said. "So hopefully, this summer we'll go in and practice for next season."

C.E. MURRAY (77)

Schwanna Dunmore 28; Kimberly Rious 25, Markeshia Lockhart 11, Ashley Woods 5, Lashay Lee 3, Aneesha Matthews 3, Sandlessa Montgomery 2

HUNTER-KINARD-TYLER (61)

Shalika Smalls 28, Melinda Brimfield 18, Sheila Jamison 10, Janobia Tyler 5

n T&D Senior Sports Writer Thomas Grant Jr. can be reached via e-mail at tgrant@timesanddemocrat.com or by phone at 803-533-5547.

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