GHSA REGION 1-A GIRLS TOURNAMENT: After empassioned halftime speech, Seminole girls stomp Stewart, advance to Region 1-A semis

CUTHBERT — Patrice Barnes was inspired.

Alexus Watson was moved.

Whatever Seminole coach Jesse McLeod told his kids at halftime, he should bottle it and sell it — or at least keep it handy for the next time his team is a little flat.

“We weren’t being aggressive. We weren’t playing our game,” said McLeod, who watched his team come back from a 21-17 halftime deficit to blow Webster out of the gym, 63-43, on Wednesday night at Randolph-Clay in the quarterfinals of the Region 1-A tournament.

“His halftime speech was awesome,” said Watson, a sophomore who led the way with 22 points and 10 rebounds before leaving with almost four minutes left in the game with Seminole leading 57-32. “He is very encouraging with his speeches. He never yells. After his speech at halftime, I was ready to get rebounds, ready to hustle and get up and down the floor.”

Watson, who had 10 points at intermission, did all that and more. But Barnes, who is also a sophomore, flipped the switch like never before. She scored all her career-high 16 points in the second half.

“I was inspired,” said Barnes, who also had five second-half rebounds. “When he gave us that speech, we knew we had to turn it around.”

The Lady Indians (19-6) are the No. 2 seed from the south sub-region, but their season would have ended with a loss. The win, however, sends them to Friday’s 7 p.m. semifinal round at Terrell County against Miller County, which won late Wednesday in another quarterfinal.

“We didn’t want our season to end,” Barnes said. “We knew we had to hustle and play harder.”

The Lady Indians didn’t wait to turn on the heat. They forced five turnovers in the first three minutes of the second half. Watson scored inside, while Katrese Brown, who scored seven of her eight points in the second half, had an and-one play to lift Seminole to a 22-21 lead in the opening minute of the third quarter.

And that was just the start.

The Lady Indians kept the pressure on, and raced off to a 20-1 run in the first four and a half minutes to take control with a 37-22 lead. They led by as much as 24 in the fourth quarter before McCloud emptied his bench.

They went to the fourth quarter leading, 40-27, dropping in 23 points in the third after scoring just 17 in the first half. Watson and Barnes each scored eight points in the quarter, while Webster’s Kierra Miley, who finished with a game-high 24 points, scored all six of Webster’s points.

The win guarantees Seminole a spot in the state playoffs next week as the top four teams all advance.

“That’s important,” McLeod said. “We were just going through the motions in the first half. Then we came out and started getting more rebounds, more turnovers and easy shots.”

McLeod wouldn’t say what he told his kids.

Maybe he was waiting to find that bottle.