When the Price is right for seventh-ranked Fort Wayne South, a lot can go wrong for the opposing team. The Anderson Lady Tribe discovered how much in losing 74-62 to the seventh-ranked Archers at the Class 4A Huntington North Regional on Saturday. Behind the 29 points and 10 rebounds of Shavonda Price, a 5-foot-8 bundle of energy whose quick first step and repeated drives to the basket proved too much for Anderson, South advanced to the night’s championship game against Kokomo. The Lady Kats downed Carroll, 42-27, in the day’s second semifinal. In the morning opener, the Lady Tribe made life difficult for itself from the outset, falling behind 15-4 midway through the opening quarter. Nine of the points came courtesy of Price, who opened the scoring 13 seconds in with a 3-pointer from the right wing. Considering the senior had converted only six treys all season coming in, it proved to be a bad omen for Anderson. First-year AHS coach Shane Sumpter never saw his squad lead in this one. The game’s critical opening minutes were the primary reason. “I just told our kids that was basically the difference in the game; we were never able to get over the hump,” said Sumpter, whose club finished 15-10. “Early on, we just weren’t able to get stops. And we missed a lot of point-blank shots we normally hit. Their size hurt us, so Fort Wayne South had a lot to do with that. “It was always a seven- or eight-point deal after that, but I was proud of our kids for the effort, especially in the second half.” Trailing by as many as 11 points on three separate occasions in the first half, the Lady Tribe produced a couple of second-half burst that got it right back into the thick of things. Down 37-26 early in the third, Anderson behind a pair of hoops from junior forward Jasmine McGhee and one from guard Bryesha McCullough closed to within five points by the 5:39 mark. The Archers responded with a 7-2 run and, suddenly, Sumpter’s squad found itself with more work to do. The Lady Tribe deficit had grown to 12 at 58-46 at 3:40 of the fourth stanza, but again Anderson worked hard to make things interesting. A chippy inside from 6-2 senior guard LaKeisha Noethtich was followed by a McGhee putback, making it 58-50 with 2:47 showing. On the ensuing possession, Archers’ freshman guard Brittany Johnson was whistled for a personal foul, which resulted in a pair of free throws by Lady Tribe senior guard Whittlie Nelson. Anderson pulled as close as four points at 60-56, but Fort Wayne South answered with four consecutive points, the dagger being Price’s off-balance rebound bucket after teammate Normalyn Smith had been too strong on a free-throw attempt. Asked if he felt it would be the Archers’ day after Price canned that early triple, fourth-year Fort Wayne South coach Andy Rang smiled. “That’s not her game. She’s a slasher, but we don’t put limits on who shoots if it’s a good shot,” said Rang, who also received 17 points from 6-2 junior center Sydney Weinert and 12 from Johnson. “She’s athletic and when she gets going like that she’s hard to stop. We felt we could push the ball on them and force the tempo. That favored us today.”  Anderson struggled with its shooting the entire game, making 25-of-69 (.362). Many of those misfires resulted in offensive rebounds for the Lady Tribe, who by game’s end owned a 48-36 advantage on the boards behind Noethtich’s game-high 17. The 5-10 McCullough, a junior, led all Anderson scorers with 18. Nelson and McGhee produced 14 apiece. Saturday’s loss proved the final game in Lady Tribe red-and-green for seniors Noethtich, Nelson, forward Nellie Eskew and backup forward-center Jessica Troutman, players who have experienced a whole lot more “W’s” than “L’s” over their careers. “Nellie has been a bear for us all year and Jessica Troutman really battled in there,” said Sumpter, alluding to the latter’s four points and nine boards off the bench against the Archers. “Whittlie Nelson has played hard all year and Noethtich really hit the glass today. “We had some ups and downs this year, but I thought the last month of the season we really played well. A lot of positive things happened for us.”

Nobody likely told Anderson that winning girls basketball sectionals last Saturday evening would be easy.  If anybody did, they lied. Anderson found Pendleton Heights most unwilling to be runner-up before the Tribe prevailed, 54-47. The reward is that they get to hit the road to play Saturday regionals. The Lady Tribe faces Fort Wayne South in the 10 a.m. opener at Class 4A Huntington North. “We would go on a couple of 6-0 or 8-0 runs against (Pendleton Heights), but it seems like they always answered with a big 3 (-pointer),” AHS coach Shane Sumpter said. “We just never could break away.” Anderson got tremendous balance from its top four players, Nellie Eskew, LaKeisha Noethtich, Jasmine McGhee and Bryesha McCullough, throughout the tournament run. “We are playing much more like a team now,” said Eskew in looking back at the team’s three-game run to the sectional title, the Tribe’s fourth in a row.