No one seemed to be keeping track of Chynna Sneed’s rebounds … or maybe they just couldn’t keep up.
Sneed put up 24 points and was a monster on the boards, especially in the second half, leading May River’s girls to a hard-fought 56-52 home win over Dillon in the second round of the Class 3A playoffs Thursday. Gracyn Drury scored 10 points, Emma Peluso added eight, and Olivia Peluso and Morgan Kinlaw-Scott each had six for May River. Adrianna Ervin led the Wildcats with 13, while Jykya Bell added 11, and Shantazia Gordon and Kamirah James each had 10.
The victory sent the Sharks into the third round of the postseason for the second straight year and avenged last year’s 36-21 road loss to the Wildcats.
“I was just so happy,” Sneed said. “There’s no feeling like beating a team you lost to last year.”
The Sharks led 24-20 after a scrappy first half, but May River played sloppily in the third quarter, failing to convert several layups and committing careless turnovers that led to transition buckets for Dillon. The Wildcats built a six-point lead before allowing the Sharks to claw within 38-35 at the end of the third period.
Sneed’s putback cut the deficit to one, and eighth-grader Morgan Kinlaw-Scott gave May River the lead with the first two of her six points — all in the fourth quarter. Sneed and Kinlaw-Scott each added another bucket at the rim to push the margin to 44-39 with 5:45 left, but the Wildcats wouldn’t go quietly.
Dillon reeled off a 6-0 run with two buckets from Gordon sandwiched around an Ervin layup, and the lead pinballed back and forth down the stretch.
Dillon led 52-48 after Bell drove for a basket with 2:15 left, but the Sharks finished the game on an 8-0 run.
“We just kept playing our game,” Sneed said. “You can’t focus on the external stuff. We just had to focus on each other, keep making good looks, keep playing defense, make sure we’re boxing out and getting rebounds. We just had to focus on the little things.”
Kinlaw-Scott scored inside to cut the deficit to two, and Emma Peluso hit two free throws to pull May River even, then Sneed went back to work on the block. She backed down her defender on the left block to give the Sharks the lead with 1:20 left, and they never let it go.
Sneed pulled down one of her countless rebounds to give May River the ball back after a Wildcats’ miss, and Emma Peluso went back to the line with 24.8 seconds left. She hit the first but missed the second, leaving the door open for the Wildcats to tie it with a 3, but Emma Peluso stole the ball from behind and Dillon sent Sneed to the line, where she missed both shots.
Still within one possession, the Wildcats couldn’t convert on their final trip down the floor, and Drury sank the second of two free throws with nine-tenths of a second left to seal the win.
“I think our girls just wanted it,” May River coach Jermaine Bigham said. “They came into this game and kind of refused to let us lose.”
The Sharks might have wrapped it up sooner had they not gone 7-of-19 from the foul line in the fourth quarter, allowing the Wildcats to hang around.
“I think we need to go back to the free throw line a little bit,” Sneed said with a laugh. “Free throws were a little rough.”
It won’t get any easier for May River (17-5), which will face fourth-ranked Manning (19-5) in the third round Monday, but the Sharks will be back in The Tank — where they’re undefeated this season. The Monarchs hammered top-seeded Strom Thurmond 62-34 on the road Thursday.
“We know the girls are gonna have a whole lot of confidence after this game,” Bigham said. “This was a big win.”
Story by Justin Jarrett
