December 18, 2021
East Alabama Sports Today
Friday roundup: Piedmont junior reaches career points milestone, but Saks wins game; Faith wins seventh straight; Cleburne County girls win Tri-County title, and more
FRIDAY’S BOYS GAMES
Alexandria 92, Lincoln 81
Drew Charter 60, Oxford 49
Faith Christian 56, Donoho 45
Glencoe 87, Gaston 41
Jacksonville 67, White Plains 35
Saks 54, Piedmont 42
Weaver 72, Ohatchee 41
Cherokee County Invitational
Cherokee County 72, Gaylesville 21
Spring Garden 60, Haralson County (Ga.) 40
Alex Odam reached another major milestone in his playing career Friday night, but he would have enjoyed it more had the game gone differently.
The Piedmont junior guard surpassed the 2,000 career point mark in the second quarter, but the Bulldogs suffered their first loss of the season, 54-42 at Saks.
“I’d much rather have the win,” Odam said. “It was a pretty cool moment, but it really didn’t mean anything when you lose. It takes a lot away from it, I guess.”
Odam, who scored his 1,000thpoint in January 2020, needed six points to reach the 2,000-point plateau after a career-high 43-point game the night before. He passed the milestone with a put back in the second quarter.
He had 15 points in the game and now has 2,009 points in 111 career games. The AHSAA starts listing career points leaders at 2,028. When he breaks into it, Odam will be the only Calhoun County player on that list.
“I tried not to think about it as much,” he said of the milestone. “It’s in the back of your head, of course, but you don’t want to put it ahead of a win or getting your teammates involved or anything like that. It’s just kind of there.”
Saks attacked the Bulldogs with a desperate abandon they hadn’t faced before this season. The pressure and physicality proved too much for a team that already was missing two seniors –
Omarion Foster (playing in the North-South All-Star football game) and Cassius Fairs (injured) – and injured had another key player, Gavin Lawler, miss some big minutes in the game to an injury.
Freshman Ish Bethel was Piedmont’s second-leading scorer with 14 points. Cole Wilson had 10 behind three 3-pointers.
The Wildcats hit four 3s in the second quarter, Connor Martin scored seven points and the they outscored the Bulldogs 19-9 to take a 32-21 halftime lead they never relinquished.
Martin led the Wildcats with 15 points. Sean Parnell had 12 – nine in the first quarter – and Jalen McCants had eight.
“We’re still trying to find our way a little bit,” Saks coach Jonathan Miller said. “I thought our kids came out and competed. That’s all we can do right now until we get our basketball legs.
“We’re going to have to play desperate. That’s how we have to play. When we don’t play desperate, things don’t tend to go our way. We tried to pressure a little bit aad play the way we wanted to play and try to take a step forward and I think we might have done that tonight.”
ALEXANDRIA 92, LINCOLN 81: D’Anthony Walton scored 33 points, Collin Taylor had 22 and all five Valley Cubs starters scored in double figures. Javais McGhee had 12 points and Kory Cargal and Julian Wright had 11 apiece.
Taylor had 14 in the second quarter as the Cubs opened a 50-33 halftime lead and Walton had 12 in the fourth quarter as they held off the Golden Bears’ rally.
Hampton had 22, Woods 21 and Tanner 19 for Lincoln. Woods had 19 in the second half after being held to two free throws in the first, Hampton had 13 in the second half and Tanner had 12 in the fourth quarter (9-of-10 from the foul line).
FAITH CHRISTIAN 56, DONOHO 45: Thomas Curlee scored 22 poiints and grabbed 18 rebounds to lead the Lions to their seventh straight victory while completing a sweep through the first wave of their area schedule for the first time in 15 years. Ethan Richerzhagen had 11 points and Jacques Prater and Yoshua Arevalo had 10 each. Drew Williamson had 19 for Donoho and Eric Tolson had 14.
WEAVER 72, OHATCHEE 41: Tristan Brown scored all 16 of his points in the first half while Jeffrey Miles was scoring 16 of his game-high 20 as the Bearcats opened a 46-22 lead. Kelbe Crook led Ohatchee with 16 points.
DREW CHARTER 60, OXFORD 49: Rylan Houck had a big game the night after going over 1,000-point plateau, but Drew Charter placed three scorers in double figures and pulled away from a tied game in the second half.
Houck scored 29 points in the game at Woodward Academy, but was the only Oxford scorer in double figures. The game was tied 30-all at halftime, then Drew outscored the Jackets 20-11 in the third quarter to take control of the game.
JACKSONVILLE 67, WHITE PLAINS 35: Julian Hill, Cam Johnson and Devin Barksdale all hit three 3-pointers and the Golden Eagles were 11-of-23 from behind the arc in the game. Caden Johnson was 7-of-9 from the field and led Jacksonville with 15 points. Hill, Johnson and Barksdale had 11 points apiece. Dylan Barksdale led White Plains with 12 points of 6-of-7 shooting from the field.
McDaniel, Brown power title run
FRIDAY’S GIRLS GAMES
Alexandria 56, Lincoln 36
Glencoe 70, Gaston 17
Ohatchee 61, Weaver 38
Piedmont 48, Saks 17
Westbrook Christian 85, Ragland 66
White Plains 43, Jacksonville 23
Cherokee County Invitational
Cherokee County 65, Gaylesville 8
Spring Garden 64, Haralson County (Ga.) 32
Tri-County Tournament
Consolation game: Clay Central 45, Randolph County 11
Championship game: Cleburne County 44, Woodland 24
LINEVILLE – They didn’t give an MVP for the tournament, but you’d be hard-pressed not to hand the award to Brooklyn McDaniel after her double-double led Cleburne County over Woodland 44-24 in the girls championship game of the Tri-County Tournament.
The Lady Tigers’ senior post scored 22 points, grabbed 12 rebounds and had four steals. She had 37 points and 17 rebounds in the two games.
Teammate Faith Brown would have been another strong pick after going for 17 points, six rebounds and three assists in the title game.
It was the Lady Tigers’ third title in tournament history.
WHITE PLAINS 43, JACKSONVILLE 23: Adriana Sotelo hit four 3-pointers in the second half to help the Lady Wildcats stretch a one-point halftime lead. Sotelo and Angel Bozarth led White Plains with 14 points apiece. Ashley Grant led Jacksonville with 11.
ALEXANDRIA 56, LINCOLN 36: Jordyn Walker hit five 3-pointers and scored 15 points to lead the Lady Cubs. She hit two in the first quarter to help them open a 16-2 lead and then nailed three in the fourth quarter as an exclamation point. Ashley Phillips scored 13 points. Lincoln’s Aubrey Machen hit four of her five 3s in the fourth quarter and led all scorers with 20 points. [**read more]
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