GREENSBORO -- Smith lost four seniors from last year's squad that won the Pizza Hut Invitational and came in as the No. 7 seed this year. But Zhaquondalee Greer returned from last year's championship team and scored a game-high 21 points in the Eagles' 53-47 upset of second-seeded Page on Tuesday at the Greensboro Coliseum Special Events Center.
Smith (2-7) advances to the semifinals today against third-seeded Northern Guilford. Game time is 5 p.m. on Court 2.
Page (7-2) will face sixth-seeded Greensboro Day in a consolation game today. Game time is 12:30 p.m. on Court 2.
After Page went on a 9-2 run late in the third quarter to take a 31-30 lead, Greer scored six points in an 8-0 run to close the period.
And when the Pirates cut the deficit to four points with 1:11 to go, Greer hit an acrobatic layup and converted the free throw to essentially clinch the game.
"She's a junior and has been on varsity all three years," Eagles coach Wilbert Perry said. "She's a tremendous scorer and is becoming more of a leader. She's becoming the player I always dreamed she would be. She's our everything right now. She's assisting, scoring, rebounding, communicating and leading."
While Greer, Breanna Garris and Alexus Phillips took care of the ball up top and handled the pressure, Zhana Winters and Brianna Lynn helped Smith under the boards, with Winters grabbing a game-high nine rebounds, including six on the offensive end.
Winters added 11 points for the Eagles and Phillips chipped in with nine.
Meanwhile, the Pirates were never able to get in the flow offensively and compounded matters by having a terrible night from the free-throw line, where they missed 14 shots.
"We quit running our offense," Page coach Debbie Jones said. "We went away from everything that we practiced and started playing chaotic. We have to do a better job of playing within ourselves and playing our game and not stepping into our opponent's game, which is what we did tonight."
Brittany Drew led the Pirates with 17 points and Kayla Johnson had 12.
Page also received a strong game from Aletta Smith, who came off the bench to score six points in 12 minutes. She had a key steal which she turned into a layup that made it 49-45 in the final minutes.
It looked like Smith was going to come up with another turnover, but she crashed into a teammate and was left writhing on the floor as Greer raced down court to convert a three-point play. Smith had to be helped from the floor, unable to put any pressure on her left leg. Jones was unaware of the extent of Smith's injury.
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