By DAN BISER
Sports Editor

DEEP RUN – Excitement and emotions ran deep Saturday night as the Whiteville Lady Wolfpack battled the Pasquotank Lady Panthers in 2A sectional basketball finals play at the South Lenoir High School gym.

For the second straight year, the WHS girls prevailed over the Pasquotank squad from Elizabeth City by a 55-52 score. It marked the Lady Wolfpack’s third sectional title in four years.

Junior forward Paige McCallum scored a game-high 30 points and brought down 10 rebounds as Coach Dudley Revels’ Lady Wolfpack survived a tightly contested, physical game to put its season record at 24-3. Senior guard Talena Faison tallied 15 points as she and McCallum each sank several crucial foul shots in the game’s closing moments to secure the win.

Whiteville will go against Hillsborough Orange (20-7) Friday at 8:30 p.m. at the Rose High School gym in Greenville in the semi-final round of the Eastern N.C. Regional Tournament. A win Friday would put the Lady Wolfpack into Saturday’s 7 p.m., regional championship game against the Fairmont-Graham winner. The Eastern Regional winner will advance to play the Western Regional winner on March 10 in Chapel Hill for the state 2A championship.

In a game very similar to last Thursday’s 66-63 overtime victory over Red Springs, the Whiteville girls had to contend with foul difficulties throughout the second half. McCallum and center Portia Baldwin each carried four fouls into the final quarter.

“You have two starters with four fouls in a do-or-die game like this, what do you do?” Revels stated following his team’s post-game celebration. “You feel like you have to sit them some, but just how long can you afford to sit them?”

Whiteville’s biggest lead of the night was by six points and Pasquotank’s was five. Whiteville led 27-23 at half and Pasquotank took a 39-38 edge into the final quarter. In the game’s final 2 and a 1/2 minutes, McCallum sank 5 of 6 attempts from the foul line and Faison sank 3 of 4. Sarah Gore added a key lay-up.

“Our biggest concern was to keep playing hard but to be smart about it,” Revels said. “Pasquotank took the ball to the basket a lot and we knew we had to do a better job defensively.”

As has been the case throughout the season, McCallum was all over the floor for the Lady Wolfpack, hitting a three-pointer, converting a three-point play, scoring eight points on follow-up shots, blocking four shots and forcing three Lady Panther turnovers.

“We stayed confident,” McCallum said. “It’s tough having to play with four fouls, but you have to keep playing and do the best you can.”

Dana Lewis led Pasquotank scorers with 18 points while Erica Rivera scored 15, Jasmine Whitehurst finished 12. The Lady Panthers closed their season with a 23-4 record
Whiteville had defeated the Lady Panthers 60-50 in last year’s sectional championship game at Elizabeth City.

In the regional tournament last year at Greenville, Whiteville defeated First Flight 59-40 in the semi-finals before falling to Farmville Central 68-63 in overtime in the championship game. The following week, the Farmville team defeated Salisbury in overtime in the state championship game.

Whiteville is the only team in this year’s 2A girls regional field that competed in the regional event last year. Over the past five seasons, the WHS girls basketball team has compiled a record of 113 wins and 18 losses.

That record also includes for Waccamaw Conference regular-season championships and four conference tournament titles.

Revels became Lady Wolfpack head coach following a five-year tenure by Keith Jordan.

WHITEVILLE (55): Gore 7, Claridy 1, Faison 15, McCallum 30, Baldwin 2.

PASQUOTANK (52): Lee 2, Whitehurst 12, Rivera 15, Lewis 18, Hagan 5.