Published: February 28, 2008 11:29 am      

Jeck leads defending champs back to finals

BEREA — Nikki Jeck did not notice her team’s early four-point deficit Wednesday, instead the Madison Southern senior calmly went about her business.

She had 16 of her game-high 23 points in the first half, nine of which came in a 20-2 second-quarter run as Southern cruised back into Friday’s finals of the 44th District Tournament with a 54-38 win over Model.

The defending champions will face Madison Central — a 70-29 winner Tuesday over Berea — on Friday in McBrayer Arena.

“I honestly didn’t even realize the score the entire first half,” Jeck said. “They played their hearts out, Model did. You can’t take anything away from them. Some things just started going right for us, I don’t know what it was, but it was something.”

The Lady Patriots had an 11-2 run to go up 11-7 early in the first quarter, but Jeck used her speed and dribbling ability to get some easy lay-ups.

The guard split defenders in the press and helped the Lady Eagles reel off a 7-2 run to take a lead they never relinquished.

Then as hot as Model was, it went that cold in the second quarter.

“Just another one of those quarters we seem to have all year,” Lady Patriot coach Steven Minter said. “It was very frustrating to have that quarter after we came out and played the way we did in the first.”

Part of Model’s shooting woes might have been the lack of attempts as Southern coach Brian Cunigan challenged his players to do a better job rebounding.

The Lady Eagles had just two boards in the first quarter, but responded to the second-year coach’s request.

“We rebounded much better,” Cunigan said. “We ended up with 16 at the half. So we were limiting Model to just one shot. When they had the lead they were getting two, three or even four looks.”

The Lady Patriots were still able to mount a bit of comeback in the second half. After not scoring a field goal for more than 14 minutes and having just two free throws in that span, Model’s Kristina Ritter got things started again.

The senior forward’s back-to-back baskets started a run that eventually cut the deficit to 10 points, 48-38, with the opportunity to cut it further from the line.

Ritter, however, missed two free throw attempts and Jeck and Brooke Casteel combined for six-of-six at the line in the final minute to put the game away.

“I told them it would come down to free throws to win it,” Minter said. “We had the chance to cut it even more down the stretch and take the momentum, but they hit theirs down the stretch and they won.”

Shelby McNeely led Model with 13 points, while Ritter added 10 points, Shelby Schneid scored nine points, Chelsea Weaver had five points and Olivia Pennington finished with one point.

Brittany Calhoun had 13 points for the Lady Eagles, while Casteel added seven points, Kassie Damrell had six points, Courtney Harold had three points and Tosha Boggs finished with two points.

Southern and Central will both advance to the 11th Region Tournament.