Red Bay girls handle Belgreen
By Staff
Mike Self, FCT Sports Editor
BELGREEN – On the heels of their biggest win of the young season, Red Bay's girls kept their positive momentum going with Friday's 61-37 rout of county rival Belgreen.
The Lady Tigers (4-5) picked up their second straight win after dropping five of their first seven games. They got things started in the right direction with Tuesday's 55-51 win over Haleyville, who was 7-1 at the time.
"The Haleyville win was big for us," Red Bay coach Donnie Roberts said. "It gave us a world of confidence, because they're a pretty solid team. Going into the Haleyville game, we had been beating ourselves. Whether it was missing free throws or not boxing out, we were just making too many mistakes."
After a sluggish start to Friday's game, the Lady Tigers took control with a 15-1 run early in the second quarter. A basket by Brittany Scott started the run, and a three-pointer by Britan Bolding made it 15-6.
Morgan Duncan followed with a steal and layup to push the lead into double figures with 6:15 left in the first half.
After Belgreen's Monica Smith made a free throw, Jessica Johnston scored four straight points to get Red Bay rolling again. A pair of free throws by Scott and a basket by Aimee Jackson capped the run and made it 25-7 with a little more than three minutes left in the half.
The Lady Bulldogs (5-4) hung around and eventually trimmed the lead to twelve early in the second half on a pair of free throws by Amber Smith, but Red Bay responded with a 7-0 run.
Kirsten Sharp sandwiched a three-pointer in between baskets by Chelsey McWilliams as the Lady Tigers opened up a 42-23 lead heading into the fourth quarter.
Despite the large margin of victory, Roberts said his young team still has plenty of work to do.
"We did a terrible job at times tonight of blocking out, and we had too many turnovers," he said. "I think we're moving in the right direction, but we're not there yet. We still have a lot of work to do."
Scott finished with 15 points to lead Red Bay, and Duncan added 11. Sharp and McWilliams each had seven, and Bolding added six.
Monica Smith led Belgreen with 11 points, and Mary Billingham and Amber Smith each added seven.
