Friday, February 3, 2006

School Projects To Quadruple Debt

Per Capita Debt In County To Rise From $395 To Nearly $1,900

When the $54 million capital improvements plan for the county’s school system is figured into the county debt figures, the per capita debt in the county will go from the current $395 to $1,873, the Halifax County Board of Supervisors learned yesterday.
During the annual audit report, Tom Smith of Robinson, Farmer, Cox & Associates told the Board that the current debt rate is around 2.86 percent of the county’s total expenditures.
“You’re doing pretty well because 10 percent is the upper range,” he said.
Smith said the county is being well managed.
“Your per capita debt is in the safe range,” he said. “We like to see it between $1,000 and $1,500.”
Currently, the county owes $14,752,247 in net debt, Smith noted.
The county reported a general fund balance of $10,778,900, with $6,363,789 in cash and investments.
“Your cash balance over the last five years has certainly grown,” Smith said. “That shows good budgeting and good management of the budget.”
Last year, supervisors approved a $53.7 million plan for extensive renovations to Halifax County Middle School and the construction of two new elementary schools.
In October, architect Alan Burchette told the Board members that construction costs had increased 20 percent since January 1, primarily due to skyrocketing material costs.

IDA Seeks Forgiveness $249K Debt

Used Funds To Build Shell Building, Purchase Rogers Property

Halifax County Industrial Development Authority Executive Director Mike Eades told the Halifax County Board of Supervisors yesterday that the IDA has exhausted all its resources in trying to find records of a $340,000 loan from the county.
Currently, $249,000 is still listed as debt on the IDA books, a debt that Eades has asked the county to forgive.
“There is no record of an understanding that the money should be paid back,” Eades told supervisors when the Boards met yesterday at Riverstone. “We’d request that the Board of Supervisors take action to remove the liability from our books.”
According to Eades, in 1978, the IDA borrowed $125,000 from supervisors to construct a shell building, with the remaining $91,000 used to purchase 141 acres that is now the site of the Halifax County Industrial Park.
During supervisors’ December meeting, County Administrator Bryan Foster told the Board that he was having trouble locating information on the original transaction.
“The money was used to purchase property on Route 58 and a shell building in Sinai,” he said. “But the information available doesn’t shed much light on it.”
Supervisors sent the matter to the finance committee for more investigation.
After supervisors requested additional information, the IDA hired a legal researcher to look for records of the transactions.
Eades said the researcher searched both county and IDA records, to no avail.
“The record is clear that $125,000 was used to build a shell building in Sinai,” he said. “The rest was used to buy what was then known as the Rogers property. It became the original part of the Halifax County Industrial park. According to Eades, a total of $340,000 was used and the IDA paid the county two payments that left a balance of $249,000, but we don’t know why it was paid back or what it was paid back for.”
IDA Chairman Larry McPeters said his Board has exhausted all resources in seeking a record of the transactions.
“We’ve done all we can do to resolve this,” he said, “so we’re going to leave it in the hands of the Board of Supervisors.”

$1.3 Million Wanted For Industry Site

Board Told Supervisors They Will Request $60,000 For Marketing

Halifax County Industrial Development Authority Executive Director Mike Eades told the Board of Supervisors yesterday that the IDA is actively pursuing funding to purchase a 42-acre parcel across Route 58 from the Halifax County Industrial Park for $1.3 million.
The announcement came as supervisors gathered at Riverstone Technology Park for their annual two-day retreat.
The IDA currently holds an option on the property. The purchase price is $25,000 per acre, according to Eades.
Eades said the tract, located behind Bojangles, will be used to market to prospective industries seeking to locate in the county.
“As it stands right now, we don’t have any industrial sites in the county to market and we’re missing out on some opportunities,” he said. “Everything cannot come to Riverstone.”
According to the executive director, the county has received a commitment from the Tobacco Commission for $545,000 toward the purchase.
“We estimate we’ll need another $780,000 to buy the land and do the infrastructure,” he said.
The IDA will issue a request for proposals (RFP) to area banks for the remaining funds, Eades told supervisors.
During the meeting, Eades told the Board that the IDA is in the process of creating a master plan for Riverstone.
“The master plan is being advertised this week because we have acquired 11 more acres that needs to be incorporated into the plan. We also want to re-subdivide the lots because Riverstone is listed on the VEDP (Virginia Economic Development Partnership) website and as it stands now, the largest lot listed is 10 acres,” he said. “If you’re on the website and are searching for sites, Riverstone won’t show up if you want a 20-acre parcel.
“In reality, we can combine lots to give prospective industries larger lots,” Eades told supervisors.
In addition, the new plan will also include technical data on the property, including infrastructure and services available, he added.
Eades said that Adesta, LLC, the network operations center for the Regional Broadband Initiative, is now located in Building I.
“We’re in serious negotiations with a couple of wireless providers and some of them want to do a pilot project combining broadband and wireless technologies,” he said. “We want that done at Riverstone.”
According to Eades, the IDA is seeking funds to demolish, dispose of and redevelop the former Georgia Pacific property, which the Board took ownership of on January 12.
“We’re estimating that it will cost in the neighborhood of $800,000,” he said. “We’re under something of a time constraint because our landfill closes at the end of 2007 and we’d have to pay some pretty substantial tipping fees if we have to haul it away.”
Eades said the Woodcraft Company, a specialty pallet manufacturer, is expected to begin construction in Sinai in the near future. The company is expected to employ 10 people, according to Eades.
Marketing Halifax County
The IDA will be requesting an additional $60,000 from supervisors this year, Eades told the Board yesterday.
“This year, we have a budget of $121,000 that includes $77,000 in motorsports funding that we won’t be getting again,” he said.
Next year’s proposed marketing budget is $107,200.
Eades said the IDA Board adopted a long-term marketing plan at its December meeting.
“We didn’t try to reinvent the wheel and we targeted the same industries as were identified in the Vision 2020 plan and added the forestry industry,” he said.
The identified industries are divided into what Eades called vertical markets – industries “within one market segment,” and horizontal markets – “across many market segments.”
“With horizontal markets, you’re reaching out to people who influence many market segments,” he said.
Industries targeted include plastics/polymers, technology/knowledge based firms, motorsports, warehouse/distribution and forest products.
“Now that we’ve defined who our audience is, the question is how do we get to them,” Eades said.
One of the goals is to update the Authority’s website weekly, he said.
“We have a good website, but we need to tweak it a little bit,” Eades said. “I can’t emphasize enough how important our website is.”

 

Hit & Run Accident Sends Child To MCV

Driver Later Caught In Centerville

Multiple people were reported injured, including a three-year-old boy who was airlifted to the Medical College of Virginia (MCV) in Richmond, following a three-vehicle accident Tuesday evening in South Boston, according to Lt. B.K. Lovelace of the South Boston Police Department.
The child is in serious, but stable condition, at MCV’s child trauma center, according to Lovelace.
Three others, 25-year-old Christine Faulkner, 34-year-old Uevette Hill and 32-year-old James Thaxton, all of South Boston, were also reported injured in the accident, police said.
Hill and the child were passengers in Faulkner’s vehicle, police said.
The accident occurred at approximately 10 p.m., at the intersection of Broad Street and North Main Street in South Boston.
According to witness statements, a 1977 Ford pickup driven by Thaxton and a 1994 Nissan sedan driven by Faulkner, were stopped at the northbound light on Broad Street when a third vehicle, a white pickup, struck the Nissan in the rear and knocked it into Thaxton’s pickup.
The white pickup then reportedly fled the scene, according to Lovelace.
Police issued an all points bulletin for the truck and a short time later it was spotted and stopped in Centerville by Halifax County Sheriff’s Deputy D.H. Barksdale.
The truck was driven by Anna Rose, 43, of South Boston, according to police.
She was charged with felony hit-and-run, DUI and refusing to submit to a breathalyzer test, Lovelace said.
Police estimated damage to Rose’s pickup at $6,000 and consider the other two vehicles involved a total loss.
Lovelace said he wanted to thank the Virginia State Police, Halifax Police Department and the Halifax County Sheriff’s Office for their assistance with the accident.
On Wednesday morning, a 44-year-old Nathalie woman was reported injured following a two-vehicle accident at the intersection of Routes 603 and 619, according to Virginia State Trooper P.W. Leath.
Theresa Mae Carrington was listed as injured after her 1993 Honda reportedly pulled into the path of a 1992 Nissan and was struck, according to the police report.
The Nissan was driven by James Harold Brown, 65, of Clover, police said.
Damage was estimated at $1,000 to the Honda and $800 to the Nissan.
Carrington was charged with failure to yield the right of way.

 

Farm Wineries Self-Distribution Bill Tabled

“Failure to pass new legislation is going to be disastrous to growers like myself,” said Halifax vineyard owner Bill Confroy yesterday following tabling of House Bill 1288 to protect farm winery self-distribution rights. “It could force us out of business.”
Confroy agrees with the Virginia Wineries Association that Virginia’s farm wineries experienced a devastating setback this week when a General Assembly Committee tabled the bill.
House Bill 1288 would have maintained the wineries’ ability to serve as their own distributor and deliver wine to shops and restaurants. 
“The tabling of this bill not only jeopardizes the survival of many of Virginia’s smaller farm wineries, but also Virginia vineyard owners, wine retailers and industry suppliers of bottles, barrels and equipment, who stand to lose significant revenues from this decision,” Virginia Wineries Association officials said yesterday in a prepared release.
“Since farm wineries are required to grow 51 percent of the grapes they use, the first place they are going to reduce their production is by not buying grapes from independent producers like myself,” explained Confroy.
“This is really criminal. How many products do you know that a producer is legislated to deal through a distributor?” added the Halifax vineyard owner.
Nathalie vineyard owners Boyd and Shirley Archer agreed.
“We need that bill to pass,” Shirley Archer said. “We need to be able to have self distribution because most small wineries don’t have a profit margin large enough to pay a distributor.”
Archer said that distributors require between $28 and $35 per case to distribute wine. “There isn’t that much profit margin per case,” she said.
Archer said the tabling of the measure could be disastrous for the small vineyard.
“It would limit us to being able to sell out of the winery only and at festivals. it would really hurt our, and all small wineries’, business. This is another attack by big business on the small farm.”
When wineries are forced to go through distributors, producers say the price goes up for customers.
“Here is the irony, here we are in Southside Virginia where we’ve lost shoes (production), textiles and tobacco, and here we were trying to establish an agricultural product growing in Virginia and our legislators cannot see a way in their infinite wisdom to allow us to do this,” charged Confroy.
“The legislature needs to change the law. It is a restriction of trade and the little guy is the one getting hit. We are supposed to be free trade and here small guys in wineries in Virginia are going to be prohibited from independently distributing their wine in Virginia,” he added.
Into his fourth year in grape production, Confroy said he has a tremendous investment in Halifax vineyard.
  The median farm winery produces 2,500 cases a year, according to the Virginia Wineries Association, and at that size small wineries cannot afford to use middleman to deliver their wine. 
“Eliminating self distribution will put many of these small Virginia farm wineries out of business,” said Association officials.
VWA officials said they received support for House Bill 1288 from the Virginia Vineyards Association, Virginia Farm Bureau Federation, Virginia Agribusiness Council, Virginia Retail Merchants Association and Virginia Hospitality and Travel Association, Loudoun County and the Virginia-Wine-of-the-Month Club.
Approximately 90% of Virginia’s farm wineries self-distribute in local markets, even when they also use a wholesale distributor, according to VWA.
Ann Heidig, president of VWA and owner of Lake Anna Winery notes, “Farm wineries use self distribution to develop important relationships with local outlets, and create brand recognition and market demand for their wines.  While some wineries produce enough wine to use a licensed wine wholesaler, small wineries with limited quantities jeopardize slim profit margins by having to use a middleman to deliver to local wine shops and restaurants.  Self-distribution has been the single most important factor in the growth of Virginia’s wine industry since 1980.  Yesterday’s vote is a direct threat to the continued viability and growth of this agricultural industry.”
The Virginia Wineries Association, established in 1983, is a non-profit trade organization.

 

Obituaries

Lloyd Eugene Coffey

Lloyd Eugene Coffey, 83, of Lynchburg, died January 31, 2006, at The Odd Fellows Home in Lynchburg.
Mr. Coffey was born in Bedford County on May 17, 1922, the son of the late Samuel P. and Lula Logwood Coffey and was married to the late Jessie Ridgeway Coffey. He was a member of Childrey Baptist Church in Nathalie where he served as a deacon and was formerly a member of Bethel Baptist Church in Evington.
Mr. Coffey served in World War II in the U.S. Army and Air Force for three years and the U.S. Army and Air Force Recruiting Service for four years and two years in occupied Germany and was honorably discharged in 1954. He was employed by Helme Tobacco Company, a branch of General Cigar Company in New York. He was a longtime member of Travelers Protective Association.
Survivors include a stepson, Frank Ridgeway and wife, Suzanne of Richmond; two stepdaughters, Carolyn R. Cook and husband, Richard, of Topping and Berry R. Dodd and husband, C. Russell, of Fredericksburg; five step-grandchildren, Megan, Sarah and Joshua Ridgeway and Taylor and Ridge Dodd; one sister, Louise C. Arrington and husband, Roy, of Forest; special friends, Jewell Burford and Pat Baird.
Mr. Coffey was preceded in death by a sister, Christine C. Faribault; and three brothers, Edward L. Coffey, George P. Coffey and Earl L. Coffey.
Funeral services will be held at Diuguid Waterlick Chapel in Lynchburg today, February 3, at 1 p.m. The Rev. Rodney Barwick will officiate. Burial will follow in Virginia Memorial Park with Military Honors by American Legion Post #16.
Those wishing to give memorials are asked to consider the D-Day Memorial, Bedford, or Childrey Baptist Church, Nathalie, 24577.

 

Comets Upset Franklin County 60-54

The HCHS Varsity Boys Cagers Downed The State’s Ninth-Ranked Team Here Tuesday Night To Earn A Tie For Second Place In The District Standings

Halifax County High School varsity boys basketball coach Ron Parson has preached the value of teamwork and execution to his players all season.
Tuesday night, the lessons finally sank in.
Playing its most complete game to date, Halifax County rallied to score a come-from-behind 60-54 win over ninth-ranked Franklin County and move into a tie with the Eagles for second place in the Western Valley District standings.
Teamwork, said senior Blaine Key, was the big factor.
“We played as a team,” said Key who led the Comets with 18 points and snared nine rebounds.
“We played together. We took care of the ball and controlled the tempo of the game. When we play together, anything is possible.”
“We wanted to make a statement,” added Comets senior Mark Ferrell who scored 11 points and led the team in rebounding with 12 boards.
“We proved something to ourselves and to the people who didn’t think we could do it. We played as a team. We played four quarters. We played hard the whole game. Now, we’ve just got to keep on going so we can get to the regionals.”
The win thrust the Comets into a tie for second place in the district standings and all but assures them of finishing no worse than third in the district standings.
Parson called the win the biggest win of the season for his team.
“This was a big win for us,” said the Comets coach.
This was a big win for our program. We needed it, they (the players) needed it and our program needed it. I was real proud of the guys. I thank the Lord for the blessing. We were blessed to do as well as we did.”
Last week Parson had pointed to this game as being the most important game of the season for his team. The players responded.
“We want to try to get into the playoffs beyond the district and to do that you have to step up somewhere along the line,” Parson pointed out.
“We felt this was a playoff game and that’s the way we approached it. We preached it last night (during Monday night’s practice) and worked at it that way and the guys came out with that attitude.”
It was a big night for the Comets who had four players reach double digits in the scoring column.
In addition to Key’s 18 points and Ferrell’s 11 points, the Comets got 17 points from Jeremy Jeffress and 10 points from Derek Brooks. Morgan Brown and Derwin Leigh scored two points each.
The Comets had a good shooting night, hitting 20 of 39 shots from the floor for 51 percent. They also did a good job taking care of the basketball on offense and gave a solid defensive effort that included five steals.
“I was real proud of our defensive effort, especially inside,” Parson said.
“I thought Mark did an unbelievable job playing their big guy (Lewis Witcher). Mark had 11 points and 12 rebounds. He really did a great job.”
Parson said the team finally brought what it had been doing in practice onto the floor on game night.
“We did what we practiced and finally did it for a whole game,” he pointed out.
“We made a little wrinkle of a change on offense. I think it made everything simpler and the guys executed it to a “T.”
Halifax County moved to playing more of an inside game on offense, allowing its bigger players, Ferrell, Key and Brooks to work to find a mismatch underneath on the low post. That, coupled with a solid defensive effort, produced the desired results.
The Comets fell behind early as the Eagles’ Riley Brubaker hit three-pointers in three of his team’s first four possessions to give Franklin County a 9-2 lead with 4:11 left in the first quarter.
Key countered with a pair of baskets to bring the Comets back to within three points. Halifax fell behind by as many as seven points after that and trailed 16-11 at the end of the first quarter.
The Comets fell behind 21-13 after Brubaker canned his fourth try of the half with 6:06 left in the first half. Halifax put together a 6-0 run over the course of the next minute with four points coming from Jeffress to make it a two-point game at 21-19 with 5:03 left in the half.
In a huge defensive stand, the Comets held Franklin County scoreless in the final four minutes of the half and got two baskets from Brooks in the final 1:19 to deadlock the game at 25-25 at halftime.
Halifax County’s first-half defensive effort held Franklin County’s standout center, Lewis Witcher, scoreless in the first half. After Witcher scored seven points in the third quarter, he went scoreless again for the final eight minutes.
In addition, the Comets’ defense clamped down on Brubaker in the second half, shutting off Franklin County’s outside scoring threat. Brubaker, who scored 12 points on four three-point baskets in the first half, hit only two baskets, both of which were three-pointers, in the second half.
Halifax County jumped on top quickly in the second half with Jeffress hitting a three- pointer on his team’s first possession to put the Comets up 28-25. The Comets trailed only once after that.
The Comets led by as many as six points in the third quarter, that coming on a basket by Ferrell with 2:40 left in the third quarter, and led 44-39 entering the final eight-minutes of the game.
Two three-point baskets, one from Brubaker and one from D.J. Willis, put Franklin County up 45-44 with 6:53 left in the game. A basket by Ferrell off of an offensive rebound and two free throws from Key put Halifax County back on top 48-45 with 5:14 left.
Later, leading by one point, the Comets got seven straight points from Jeffress, five of which came from the charity stripe, to open up a 55-47 lead with 40.6 seconds left in the game.
Franklin County made a brief run at the end with a basket from Willis cutting the Comets’ lead to three points at 55-52 with 24.8 seconds left.
Two free throws from Brown, a key steal by the Comets with 15 seconds left and a subsequent free throw by Ferrell with 13.6 seconds left was enough to allow the Comets to put the game away.

FRANKLIN CO.
NAME FG FT F TP
Journiette 0 0-0 0 0
Brubaker 6 0-0 4 18
Edwards, J.T. 1 0-0 1 2
Edwards, A. 2 0-0 1 5
Mattox 1 0-0 2 2
Willis 3 1-2 3 8
Craig 2 0-0 2 4
Cook 1 0-2 1 2
Sigmon 2 2-2 3 6
Witcher 3 1-1 3 7
Totals 21 4-7 20 54
HALIFAX COUNTY
NAME FG FT F TP
Terry 0 0-0 1 0
Burrell 0 0-0 1 0
Leigh 1 0-0 0 2
Jeffress 3 10-13 1 17
Brown 0 2-2 2 2
Key 6 6-6 0 18
Brooks 4 2-2 4 10
Sibley 0 0-0 0 0
Ferrell 5 1-2 3 11
Totals 19 21-25 12 60
Three Point Field Goals: Jeffress (HC) 1, Brubaker (FC) 6, A. Edwards (FC) 1, Willis (FC) 1

Franklin County 16 9 14 15-54
Halifax County 11 14 19 16-60

 

Lions Boys Cagers Eliminate Powhatan In Tourney Opener

HCMS Plays Russell Tonight In Tournement Semifinals

The Halifax County Middle School boys basketball team didn’t play the first half of Wednesday’s quarterfinal game here with Powhatan like the top seed in the Southside Middle School Conference Tournament.
The second half, however, was a different story, the Lions turning a 26-17 halftime lead into a rout in the third quarter on the way to a 69-28 win.
Halifax will take on Russell today at 7:30 p.m. at Nottoway High School in the tournament semifinals, with the finals scheduled for tomorrow at 7:30 p.m., again at Nottoway High School.
Lemal Adams led a balanced scoring attack with 19 points for Halifax, with Tevin Gayles adding 15, Devin Walton 13 and Deshon Dabbs nine points.
Demetre Faulkner and Quinton Wooden each finished with four points and Demetrius Burrell hit a trey, while Marcus Williams added two points for Halifax, which got off to a rusty start against the Indians before warming up as the game went along.
“I think today was pretty much a result of a week without playing any games,” began Lions coach Mike Hailey.
“Our defense was a little slipshod and we were experimenting with some things we were thinking of using later in the tournament,” he added.
Several missed layups, poor free throw shooting (2-8) and less than stellar rebounding allowed a scrappy Powhatan team to hang close to the Lions in the first half.
“We were two for eight from the line in the first half, that’s six points we missed out on,” noted Hailey.
“And that’s probably a worse a half on the boards as we’ve had all year. They competed with us on the boards pretty well to start, and that’s a credit to them.
“But, a lot of it had to do with us not positioning ourselves well and not blocking out, taking it for granted that we’d control the boards.”
Adams’ trey got the Lions off to a good start against Powhatan, Walton later hit one of two foul shots and Dabbs scored inside off a nice feed from Williams for a 10-4 advantage.
Powhatan rallied to tie the score before Dabbs hit a big three-pointer for the Lions to give it them a 13-10 lead going into the second quarter.
Adams scored six points and Gayles three points in a surge that gave Halifax a 22-12 lead in the second quarter, but Powhatan was still within 26-17 by halftime.
The third quarter in particular and the second half in general was an entirely different ball game, the Lions turning up the intensity on both ends of the floor.
Gayles and Adams crashed the boards to score on follow shots, both being fouled and both converting three-point plays for a quick 32-17 advantage for the Lions.
Those scores started a 26-5 run in the third quarter that essentially put the game out of reach, Walton scoring six of the next eight points for Halifax, Dabbs scoring off an inbounds play and Williams on a drive to make it 44-22.
Two Lions combined on a tip-in, Dabbs drove for a basket, Adams an acrobatic reverse layup and Gayles a follow shot in the surge that made it 52-22 after three quarters.
Halifax kept its focus in the final period, Wooden and Faulkner adding four points, Adams and Gayles three each, and Burrell a three-pointer to propel the Lions into the semifinals.
“The third quarter was the ball game,” said Hailey. “We came out and played pretty good defense, dominated the boards on both ends and got a lot of second shots.
“We stayed in our man-to-man defense and did a little better job of it. We could have gone zone and still handled Powhatan, but I wanted us to do a lot of running and get into an uptempo game.”
There will be no secrets in the semifinals, Halifax playing conference opponent Russell for the third time this season, according to Hailey.
“We know all about them and what it’ll take for us to win the game,” said Hailey. “Beating a team three times in one year is tough, no matter how good or bad they are and no matter where you play.
“We’ll just have to see how it goes, and if we play as well as we’re capable of playing, it’ll be difficult for them.
“If not, it’ll be a good ball game, and if we don’t execute the fundamentals, you never know.”

 

Lady Lions Advance To Tourney Semifinals

HCMS Girls Rout Central, Face Wyatt Today At Nottoway

The Halifax County Middle School girls basketball team had little trouble routing Central of Charlotte County 64-11 here Wednesday in the quarterfinal round of the Southside Middle School Conference Tournament.
Miyisha Younger scored 16 points and Whitney McCargo was next with 15 for Halifax, which plays E.W. Wyatt for the third time this season today at 6 p.m. in the tourney semifinals at Nottoway High School.
Wyatt, the three seed in the East Division, reached the semifinals with a win over West two seed Amelia, with the Halifax-Wyatt winner playing the Bluestone-Park View winner tomorrow at 6 p.m. for the championship.
Nine other Lions hit the scorebook in Wednesday’s game, Melyse Brown finishing with eight points, Tiffany Wilson and Destiny Betts six points apiece, Jamilia Smith five points, and Jameshia Smith, Jessie Bagbey and Trevia Hunt a basket apiece.
Johanna Spencer and Shelby Rutledge were each one of two from the foul line to complete the Lions’ final point totals.
Keehawanna Wilson led Central with eight points, Alexis Roberts added two and Alicia Pugh one point.
Central gave the Lions all they wanted in the title game here last year before Halifax prevailed, but the Bobcats, with almost an entirely new roster, did not present the same challenge this time around.
The Lions took command early, their defense kicking their transition game into high gear for a quick 11-0 lead, most all of the points coming after steals.
Younger and McCargo did most of the damage, Younger with 10 first-quarter points, and McCargo five, while Brown added four and Wilson two points, as the Lions led 21-2 after one quarter.
McCargo scored three of the Lions’ first five field goals in the second quarter, the last coming on a follow shot to give Halifax a 31-2 bulge.
Younger added four points, and Brown, Bagbey and Hunt a basket apiece in a run that gave Halifax a 39-4 halftime lead.
The Lions turned off the pressure in the second half, but an active zone defense created several scoring opportunities off steals. Betts scored six points, Wilson four, and McCargo, Younger and Brown two each, as Halifax led 55-6 after three quarters.
Jamilia Smith hit a trey among her five points in the final period, Jameshia Smith added a field goal, and Spencer and Rutledge their foul shots to complete the scoring for the Lions.
Today’s contest with Wyatt marks the third consecutive year the Lions have played the Panthers in the tournament semifinals, and coach James Smith is expecting another tough game.
“They always seem to play us tough, especially at their gym, and it’s hard to beat a god team three times in one season,” said Smith.
“We jumped on them early in the game here, but we only had a two-point halftime lead at Wyatt. They have a big girl inside who blocked some shots and scored some against us, and they have at least one other good scorer.
“The good thing is we play them on a neutral court, and if we play defense the way we normally do, we should be okay.”
Smith said he would try to use his team’s depth to wear down Wyatt, using a variety of changing defenses.
“We like an uptempo game, so we’re going to take it to them early, mix up our defenses and try to get a lead,” continued Smith
“That is our game and that will be the key.”