BY BRIAN HAMILTON
SEYMOUR – The King’s Academy honored head coach Dante Turnipseed for winning his 100th game in a 63-26 win at Concord Christian on Tuesday, January 20 before Friday’s winter homecoming game. While Turnipseed was elated by the honor, the fifth-year Lady Lions coach knew he had to keep his focus on the task at hand, a home tilt against district foe Grace Christian. TKA defeated Grace 44-33 on the road January 6 and a win would all but wrap up at least a 2-seed in February’s district tournament.
Skylar Walden (14) drives against Grace Christian’s Abby Roberts (13). Walden finished with a game high 21 points. Photo by Brian Hamilton
Turnipseed said after the game that the surprise celebration made the win sweeter, but the pressure larger, to win his 101st game.
“It was really the icing on the cake. Honestly, I didn’t know the 100th thing was happening today,” Turnipseed said. “They surprised me with it before the game, so during that moment, I was like, ‘We have to win now — we can’t go back from this, guys. We can’t celebrate before the game and then lose the game.'”
The Lady Lions jumped out to an early first quarter lead and never trailed in the contest, going on to win 58-46 behind 21 points from junior guard Skylar Walden.
“We’re trying to get in that first-place spot to make that trip to district and region a little bit easier,” Turnipseed said. “We don’t want to go in there and fight from behind. We did that last year.”
Adit Kuol opened the scoring with a layup, followed by a three-pointer by Olivia Loveday to give The King’s Academy a 5-0 lead with 6:38 left in the first quarter.
Grace Christian got on the board when Naomi Tchanga made a basket and was fouled. Tchanga missed the free throw attempt, leaving Grace trailing 5-2.
TKA would continue to pour it on offensively, as Kuol made another layup, followed by a three by Kyle Young, stretching the Lady Lions’ lead to 10-2 with 5:12 left in the opening quarter.
Nya Burns would hit a three-pointer to end the bleeding for the Lady Rams, cutting the TKA deficit to 10-5 with 4:10 left. A pair of free throws by Kuol and a floater by Skylar Walden pushed the Lady Lions lead to 14-5 with 2:23 left in the first period.
A pair of Walden free throws would stretch the TKA lead into double digits, at 16-5, with 1:22 left. Grace would trim the lead to 16-8 on a Burns three-pointer, but Walden answered with a layup with 23 seconds left, giving The King’s Academy an 18-8 advantage after the first quarter.
Grace Christian opened the second quarter by scoring five straight, as Burns nailed a three to cut the Lady Rams’ deficit to 18-13. Walden answered the Grace mini-run with a floater to push the TKA lead back to 20-13.
A midrange jumper by Bella Brady would make the score 20-15, but a Walden three-pointer would stretch the TKA lead to 23-15 with 5:11 left in the first half.
Kyle Young grabbed a rebound and putback to give TKA a 25-17 lead with 2:36 remaining, and a Kuol layup would give the Lady Lions a 27-19 lead with 1:26 remaining in the half.
Abby Roberts would sink a long two-point basket at the first-half buzzer to send Grace to the locker room trailing TKA 27-21.
Roberts picked up where she left off in the first half, grabbing a steal and scoring to cut the Lady Lions’ lead to 27-23. Walden would follow that up with two baskets, however, extending the TKA lead to 31-23 with 5:46 left in the period.
Adit Kuol goes up for a basket during TKA’s district win over Grace Christian. Kuol finished the game with 14 points and 14 rebounds. Photo by Brian Hamilton
A steal and layup by Emily Atchley would push the TKA lead to double digits, at 37-27, with 1:33 left in the third quarter. Grace would answer by scoring a pair of baskets by Brady and Charli Pancratz to make the score 37-31 with just over one minute left. Walden fought through contact to make a layup, but Roberts nailed a three to trim the Lady Rams’ deficit to 39-34.
Walden then found Kuol on a pick-and-roll play for a layup with 10 seconds left, giving the Lady Lions a 41-34 lead heading into the final quarter.
Olivia Loveday opened the fourth quarter with a corner three to stretch the TKA lead to 44-34. Walden then sank four consecutive free throws and grabbed a steal on the Grace inbounds pass and scored a layup, giving the Lady Lions their largest lead of the game, at 54-37 with 4:15 remaining.
The Lady Rams then went on a 6-0 run, capped by a Nya Burns three, cutting the TKA lead to 54-43 with 2:23 left in the game. Abby Roberts then made a layup and converted an old-fashioned three-point play to pull Grace to within eight with 2:02 remaining. The sequence capped a 9-0 run by the Lady Rams. That is as close as the game would get, however, as TKA put the game away with a Kuol layup and went on to win 58-46.
“We just tried to pressure them and make shots hard — they’re a good shooting team,” Turnipseed said after the game. “If they make a three, make it a hard look or something that they have to take off the dribble. It’s easy to shoot off the catch. We tried to put a little more pressure on their guards to make those threes a little bit harder, but of course they’re going to make some, they’re good.”
Skylar Walden led all scorers with 21 points, while Adit Kuol finished with 14 points and 14 rebounds.
Turnipseed praised Kuol’s presence in the paint and on the glass after the win.
“This was a big game for her. We’ve been telling her that she can do this, being that tall (6-4) and just playing big around the rim. We’ve been telling her, ‘if you miss, just go get it and go back up.’ She got a couple of and-ones and it was a big game for her. I know we shoot a lot of threes, but it will be a lot easier if we can dump it down in to our bigs and get them going first.”
Grace Christian was led by Nya Burns’ 15 points, while Naomi Tchanga and Abby Roberts both finished with 10 apiece.
The King’s Academy (20-5, 10-1 Class A District 1) will travel to Upperman (18-4) for a non-district battle on Monday, January 26. Grace Christian (18-8, 7-3 District 1) hosts district-leading CAK (21-2, 10-0) on Tuesday, January 27.