Jim Walker
jim.walker@irontontribune.com

CHEROKEE, N.C. — The Coal Grove Lady Hornets couldn’t seem to get started.
Then in the second half, Destiny Dolen and Emily Compliment got going.
Dolen scored 20 points and Compliment had 17 — all in the second half — as Coal Grove rallied to beat the Dawson City (Ga.) Lady Tigers 55-53 on Friday in the Cherokee Holiday on the Hardwood Christmas Classic.
“It was like our last game. We started off sluggish and allowed them to knock down some shots because we were not rotating defensively,” said Lady Hornets’ coach Rick Roach.
The Lady Tigers took a 19-8 first quarter lead as Calli Watson hit three 3-pointers and both Abi Chatham and Sophia d’Oliveira had one each.
The Lady Tigers were up 28-16 at the half.
“They had a girl over 6-foot tall and we didn’t box her out early. We talked about adjusting a few things at halftime and we came out and didn’t do anything we talked about,” said Roach.
Dolen took over in the third quarter and scored 12 points while Compliment added a 3-pointer and the Lady Hornets got within 41-37.
Dawson City got seven points from d’Oliveira and six from Anna Lowe in the quarter.
“We got down 16 but we put our heads on and began to playing our game. Destiny Dolen decided she wasn’t going to lose and brought everyone else into her energy level,” said Roach.
Down two points with less than a minute to play, Compliment tied the game and then got the ball back. Dolen was fouled on a putback attempt and hit both shots to give Coal Grove the lead for the first time in the game with 4.9 seconds to play.
Dawson City missed a 3-point attempt at the buzzer as Coal Grove held on for the win.
Compliment scored 14 of her points in the fourth quarter including a pair of 3-pointers. Dolen accounted for the rest of Coal Grove’s points as she went 4-for-4 at the foul line.
Coal Grove was 12-of-13 from the line compared to just 4-of-5 for Dawson City.
Dawson City (7-4) was led by d’Oliveira with 13 while Watson had 12 and Lowe 10.
Coal Grove plays at Chesapeake next Thursday.
Coal Grove    8    8    21    18    =    55
Dawson City    19    9    13    12    =    53
COAL GROVE (7-2): Addi Dillow 0 0 0-0 0, Bailey McKnight 1 0 2-2 3, Emily Compliment 3 3 2-3 17, Kasey Murphy 2 0 0-0 4, Alexis Hall 2 0 0-0 4, Destiny Dolen 6 0 8-8 20, Lauren Crum 3 0 0-0 6. Totals: 17 3 12-13 55. Fouls: 7. Fouled out: None.
DAWSON CITY (7-4): Abi Chatham 0 1 0-0 3, Chloe Bennett 3 0 0-0 6, Calli Watson 0 4 0-0 12, Sophia d’Oliveira 3 2 1-2 13, Kenedy Moledor 0 0 0-0 0, Anna Lowe 4 0 2-2 10, Cadey Ayers 4 0 1-1 9. Totals: 14 7 4-5 53. Fouls: 13. Fouled out: None.