January 11, 2022
By Al Muskewitz
East Alabama Sports Today
It may have gone against the routine, but Cleburne County’s girls get comfortable in easy in-school victory; Alexandria sacks Saks
HEFLIN – Todd Gable isn’t a big fan of in-school basketball games, but given his Cleburne County girls’ history in them, he might be coming around.
Gable gets the concept – they’re a good fund-raiser for a captive audience and they get the students involved in your program. But he, like most coaches, is a creature of habit and the mid-week matinees are kind of a routine buster.
But now that his Lady Tigers are 2-0 all-time in in-school games after crushing Clay Central 58-18 Monday he might be considering a change of tune.
“I like rituals, I like routines,” Gable said. “I don’t even like when we have nights when it’s only a two-game set, because we’re so used to our routine.
“The girls shoot around, get their food and come back at 4:30 and watch the B-team play, so it throws us off. I’m a creature of habit.”
The Lady Tigers played their first in-school game several years ago when the wrestling team needed the gym to host a big duals match and they scored an area win over Lincoln.
The game Monday gave them a chance to play in front of the student body and get finished in time to avoid any conflict with the CFP national championship game that was going to capture everyone’s attention later that evening.
They were supposed to do one last year, but it fell victim to COVID protocols. They’ll play another in-school game at Clay Central later this month with the boys going first.
All of the Lady Tigers were playing in their first in-school game. Freshman guard Faith Brown liked it “a lot,” partly for the most obvious of reasons.
“To get out of class,” she said. “I liked it lot. We normally don’t have that much crowd, but you had a lot of energy and all of it hyped up the team.”
Brown was the Lady Tigers’ leading scorer with 22 points. She also had four rebounds and five steals. Brooklyn McDaniel had 19 points, nine rebounds, five assists and two blocked shots. Hailey Price had 10 points with both of the Lady Tigers’ 3-pointers.
Brown needs 93 points to become their second player this season to reach the 1,000-point plateau. McDaniel now has 1,611 career points and 1,420 rebounds.
It took the Lady Tigers a little while to get into it, but once they get on track they had their way with the Lady Vols. They took the lead for good with nine straight points in the first three minutes of the second quarter – six by McDaniel and a 3-pointer by Price – and closed it out with the last 24 points of the game.
They led by 14 at halftime, then held the Lady Vols to two points in the second half and scoreless in the fourth quarter. Karley Boyd and Jacy Littleton locked down on Clay Central leading scorer Sydnee Reaves and held her scoreless in the second half.
“That was our goal,” Gable said. “Under 20 is what I told them at halftime.”
ALEXANDRIA 63, SAKS 22: Ashley Phillips scored 26 points and Jordyn Walker had 23 to lead the Lady Cubs. Walker hit all four of her 3-pointers in the second half and scored 13 points in the fourth quarter. [**read more]
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