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Thursday night in the 2-A NCHSAA regional semifinals at Atkins High School, she had plenty to smile about as the 26-4 East Davidson Lady Golden Eagles knocked out Mitchell County, 63-55, to advance to the regional finals today at the LJVM Annex against Salisbury (28-1). She also let the Mountaineers know she has more than just a smile to go with her game.
It was as physical as a game can get, and Freeman was the one doing most of the bruising. Her 27 points, 17 rebounds and seven blocks roughed up the opposition, and she showed a tough side of her that many have not seen.
“I think we were both physical equally down low,” she said. “At the top it got a little crazy, but that's the way it's been all year long. We've had to battle.”
A battle nearly turned into a blowout in the third quarter, with East building onto its 36-30 halftime lead. Freeman, Elizabeth Merritt and Alyssa Cutshaw spear-headed a 10-0 run that showed the fundamentals of the Eagles.
“If I could bottle that and open it up any time I want to, we would be all right,” said East coach Terry Allmon.
Mitchell was able to close up the wounds and charge back to get within 49-44 at the end of the third. Much of that came from Lakin Norris and Samantha Blevins, as the two got hot from deep and were able to get some shots in the lane.
“That run gave us a little bit of cushion, and all of a sudden it just went away for some reason,” said Allmon. “Mitchell's got a very good basketball team. They made that run in the second half, and we had to fight for our dear lives.”
The Mountaineers chiseled the lead down to two after a Norris 3-pointer, forcing an East timeout. East came right back with a lob play from Cutshaw to Freeman to make it 55-51. Freeman put two more points on the board at the line with 1:09 left for a 58-53 score, and the Golden Eagles continued to lengthen its lead and eventually win the game at the line.
“I'm very proud of them. We made plays when we had to,” said Allmon.
Mountaineer coach Dawn Lowe couldn’t have been more pleased with her team’s fight.
“We consider ourselves to be a ‘never give up’ team, and we never feel like we are out of a game,” she said. “We are going to keep trying and hopefully in the end we can pull it out. It just didn’t happen that way tonight.”
And her team’s encounter with Freeman was something totally new.
“We really haven’t faced a post player like that in our conference or in the playoffs,” Lowe said. “She is a very talented player. We tried different things, and she is just athletic and a very good player.”
First quarter action was back and forth with Mitchell leading 13-12. In the second, the paint opened up nice and big for Freeman thanks to her good friend Cutshaw. The southpaw spotted up behind the arc and planted open shots, forcing Mitchell to put their tallest player in Blevins on her. That gave Freeman free run in the lane to do what she wanted the rest of the night.
“Most teams can't handle her (Freeman) or Liz put together because they work so well together,” said Cutshaw. “We had to make something happen outside in order to open up the inside.”
Cutshaw ended with 11 points and Merritt had 14 points and 10 rebounds. Norris led Mitchell with 18.