‘Better late than never.’ Tates Creek goes from losing record to district finals.
With just four wins in the regular season, 2021 had been a campaign to forget for the Tates Creek girls’ basketball team.
That is, until Wednesday night.
The Commodores (6-11) stunned top-seeded Paul Laurence Dunbar in the 43rd District semifinals with a come-from-behind 50-43 victory that propelled Tates Creek to its second consecutive district title game and next week’s 11th Region Tournament.
In the process, Tates Creek knocked one of the 11th Region favorites out of tournament basketball and pulled off one of the biggest upsets of the year.
“We knew going into the game that everyone was going to doubt us and they thought it was just going to be a blowout,” said junior forward Caty Armishaw, whose straight-away 17-footer put Tates Creek ahead 44-34 with 1:28 left in the game. It was the Commodores’ first lead since midway through the first quarter. They did not let it go. “We just came together.”
In Matt Yates four seasons, his Tates Creek teams had never beaten Dunbar. This year, they lost by 20 the first time around. But in the regular-season rematch on their home court Feb. 5, they cut that margin to a 54-48 loss and removed a lot of mental hurdles in the process, Yates said.
“I think our girls saw that, ‘Hey, we’re good enough to beat them,” Yates said. “We just scrapped and fought so hard. I’m so proud of them.”
Tates Creek trailed by as many as eight points in the first half and was down 43-40 with 2:55 left in the game. But turnovers and missed free throws down the stretch from Dunbar created an opening. And Tates Creek stepped through it.
Freshman Ashton Harris, averaging 2.9 points off the bench, got a start Wednesday and scored 17 points, including a turn-around fade-away in the paint that got Creek within 43-42 moments before Armishaw’s shot. She also hit a pair of free throws to help seal the victory.
“Ashton Harris was the player of the game,” said Armishaw, who had 10 points and eight rebounds. “We would not have won that game without her big points and her defense. … I hope she just keeps building from this, because she’s going to be good.”
For Dunbar (14-4), the loss marked a disappointing end to the season and the high school careers for five seniors, including leading scorer and rebounder Elise Ellison-Coons, who has averaged a double-double for her career and had 11 points and eight rebounds against Tates Creek. Aziah Campbell led the Bulldogs in scoring with 12 points.
It appeared Tates Creek under Yates had turned a corner last year with an 18-13 record after nine straight losing seasons. With the bulk of his talented team back this year, Yates’ fellow 11th Region coaches voted Tates Creek the fourth-best team among them in the preseason.
But a four-game losing streak to start the year, a COVID-19 shutdown at the end of January and the disjointedness of games and practices under pandemic restrictions kept the team from really connecting, Yates said.
It was in the last week of the regular season where Tates Creek focused only on themselves and did not play any games that Yates began to see his team gel.
“We knew we were capable,” Yates said. “We found a way at the end. Better late than never.”
Tates Creek lost five of its last seven games. Armishaw agreed with her coach that the final week to themselves helped the team and created the atmosphere where they could get back-to-back postseason victories over Lexington Christian and Dunbar.
“We started bonding and sending inspirational quotes to each other. It’s brought us closer together,” she said. “This season has been so tough. We were down all season, had some negative energy, and we talked about it, put it aside and we’ve been positive and cheering for each other and building each other up. And it’s bringing everyone’s confidence out.”
Tates Creek will face Lafayette at 6 p.m. Friday in the 43rd District finals. Lafayette swept their regular-season matchups, 52-49 and 59-46.
