SOUTH FORK 2A GIRLS: Given ‘Green light’, Logan Dutka leads Bandys to tourney final, state playoffs

By CHRIS HOBBS

HobbsDailyReport.com

CATAWBA – When the time came late in the second overtime of a workhorse-like game of survival in a must-have game on Thursday night, Bandys High girls’ head coach Nicki Sigmon had just the right words ready.

The second-seeded Trojans were in a South Fork 2A tournament semifinal dogfight with sixth-seeded and visiting East Lincoln and already had small forward Emma Dutka and best ball-handler Macy Rummage on the bench after fouling out.

On the other end, the Mustangs’ Brianna Tadlock (40 points, eight rebounds, four assists, two steals and one block) was almost a certainty to match anything the Trojans came up with.

That’s when Sigmon spoke the same two words she’s said to Logan Dutka, a 5-foot-10 freshman, many times this year.

“Green light,” Sigmon said she told Dutka, who took over handling the ball – and the game – over the final two minutes, scoring eight of her 26 points, as the Trojans won 76-68 to advance to the tournament title game.

“Sometimes that clicks with her,” Sigmon said of her way of telling Dutka it’s OK to do her thing.

“(And) when she’s on,” Sigmon said, “she’s on.”

As a result, Bandys (16-7) plays top-seeded Newton-Conover (22-4) — which has won 21 straight games — on Friday (7 p.m.) in the tournament final at Lincolnton.

Because of Thursday’s victory, the Trojans don’t have to win again to get into the state 2A playoffs. Without that, Bandys faced a bus ride to Maiden on Friday afternoon for a 4 p.m. special playoff game against Lincolnton for the league’s second automatic bid into the state brackets.

But since the Trojans reached the final, that instead broke the tie as Bandys earned its 45^th postseason bid in 49 years instead of possibly missing the postseason in back-to-back seasons for the first time in that time span.

With three juniors, two sophomores and four freshmen on a 13-player roster, Sigmon said it’s been a season of nothing-comes-easy.

“It’s more fun that way,” Logan Dutka, standing a few feet from Sigmon after the game, said with a big grin.

Against the gutsy Mustangs, nothing came easy and there were times Sigmon said she wasn’t sure the Trojans would win.

“They (her players) decided they wanted it,” she said. “We kept getting in there but let them (the Mustangs) come back up. Every time, we got a lead we needed but we never could get comfortable.”

Taking Sigmon’s signal, Logan Dutka stepped up to back a 20-point game by Rummage and 11 points by Laci Paul, who had two key first-overtime buckets.

“Be a leader and be patient,” Dutka said of her mindset with the game on the line.

It was Dutka’s 3-pointer from the left wing in regulation that got them within 48-47 in regulation, just before Rummage made a backcourt steal and hit two free throws for a 49-48 lead.

After Tadlock hit two free throws to regain the lead for East Lincoln with 37 seconds left, Emma Dutka drained a 3-pointer. She was on the right wing when Asisa McLean hustled on a rebound of a miss by Logan Dutka and got the ball out to Emma Dutka.

The game went into the first overtime, tied at 52, after East Lincoln’s Katie Cox converted two free throws with 18.8 seconds to go.

Bandys started the overtime with Logan Dutka’s pressure-doesn’t-bother-me 15-foot jumper from the left wing.

“I knew we needed a shot and I was open,” Logan Dutka later said.

Twenty-four seconds later, Paul missed but rebounded and stuck it back for a 56-52 lead.

Tadlock drove the gut of the lane and was fouled, making it a 3-point play, to get East Lincoln within 56-55 with 2:47 left.

Paul scored in the lane and was fouled, missing a free throw, before Tadlock was fouled on a drive and made two free throws to leave it 58-57 with 2:02 left.

With 44.8 seconds to go, Rummage made two free throws and then Tadlock made two to make it 60-59 with 35 seconds left.

Rummage made one of two free throws for a 61-59 lead by Bandys, which gained possession with 19.9 seconds to go when Tadlock, rolling on the floor on top of Trojans players, was called for a backcourt walk.

That led to Rummage at the free-throw line for two, the first one hitting the front of the rim and the second one going in.

But Tadlock then made two free throws before Rummage was again at the line, with 10.8 seconds to go, and hit one of two.

East Lincoln got a ball that went off Bandys with 9.4 seconds to go, and Tadlock drove the lane for an underhand lay-in and 63-all tie at 1.8 seconds to go.

The second four-minute overtime was more of the same back and forth.

Rummage drove the middle of the lane off an inbounds pass for a bucket, and Tadlock answered with a drive and short bank shot for the Mustangs.

With 2:53 to go, Paul missed a shot that Logan Dutka rebounded and put in for a 67-65 lead.

At the two-minute mark, Logan Dutka made a backcourt steal and converted but – after a charge on Emmy Dutka fouled her out – Tadlock hit two free throws.

With 61 seconds to play, Logan Dutka scored from the left wing, and Bandys led 72-67 when Paul hit a free throw.

Over the final 20.6 seconds, when the clock malfunctioned, Logan Dutka hit two free throws.

The final nine seconds of the game were counted off by the officials, who finally raised their arms to signal it was over.

With the hard part completed – the Trojans’ 144^th postseason game since 1970-71 is in the bag – Sigmon said she’ll focus on the same thing she’s targeted since the season opened.

“Definitely what I gotta get is (more) consistency from them,” if state playoff win No. 106 and first since 2015-2016 is coming next week. “(But) they are young.”