Fear of failure can be a powerful motivator in the postseason.
That’s certainly seems to be what happened to the Newton Lady Tigers in the past week.
The Lady Tigers finished fourth in the Division 5-2A Tournament and seemed destined for a quick exit from the playoffs. But the Lady Tigers put together one of their best performances of the season and beat top-seeded Puckett 58-48 on Monday night.
The Lady Tigers followed that up with a big 52-43 win over Heidelberg on Friday night to advanced to the Class 2A quarterfinals.
Newton coach Ty Harden said that fear of failure has been powerful for the Lady Tigers this week.
“I would say the difference is the hunger to not be humiliated,” Harden said. “Newton has a culture of getting to the Coliseum. They have a hunger to not be the team that doesn’t make it. They have played a tough schedule and lost some confidence in there. I think once they saw what some of those teams that have beat them have done, it boosted their confidence. We have struggled to score but our defense has gotten better and that has helped out a lot. We rely on Zia (Shields) a lot to score and we have tried to keep her fresh on defense. They rest of the team has bought into guarding for her so she can score on offense.”
Newton will now advance to the Class 2A quarterfinals where they will make the short trip to Lake to take on the Lady Hornets, a team that has beat them twice this season.
“We have been within three or five points of them each time we have played,” Harden said. “Now that we have upset a No. 1 seed and a No. 2 seed, I think we will have the confidence to get past them. It’s nothing we haven’t seen. They have played on big stages against some big teams. They have played somebody ranked in each class.”
Newton 52, Heidelberg 43
The Lady Tigers went on the road again and came away with a big win as they built a lead in the first half and took a nine-point win over the Lady Oilers on Friday night in the Class 2A tournament.
Newton led 10-7 at the end of the first period and then outscored Heidelberg 13-4 in the second to lead 23-11 at the half. Each team scored 18 points in the third period while Heidelberg took the fourth period 14-11 as Newton held on to take the win.
Zia Shields led Newton with 24 points while Erin Ware had 12 points. Mariana Thames also chipped in six points.
Newton 58, Puckett 48
The Lady Tigers went on the road on Monday and came away with a win over division 7-2A champion Puckett.
Puckett led for most of the first half as they outscored Newton 14-10 in the first and 18-14 in the second period to lead 32-24 at the half. But the Lady Tigers bounced back in the second half as they outscored the Lady Wolves 19-7 in the third as Newton took a 43-39 lead into the fourth period. Newton finished by outscoring Puckett 15-9 to take the win.
Zia Shields had a big night for the Lady Tigers with a season high 38 points. Erin Ware had 13 pants while Summer Jordan added seven points.
