Jacksonville girls roll; PV rallies
- Updated: December 10, 2014
Golden Eagles win eighth straight; Raiders rely on press to win
By Al Muskewitz
East Alabama Sports Today
There must have been something about losing the season opener that really didn’t sit right with the Jacksonville girls basketball team.
It hasn’t lost since.
The Golden Eagles soared to their eighth straight victory Tuesday night, overwhelming Saks 73-43 in their area opener.
There wasn’t a lot they did wrong. They shot 62 percent from the field as a team. Ten of the 15 players who got in the game scored. Leading scorers Virginia Poe, Dasia Kirksey and Sierra Stone combined to shoot 22 for 28 from the floor and score 48 points.
Poe had 23 points on the strength of 10-of-12 shooting (3-of-3 from 3-point range). Kirksey had 15 points and nine rebounds. Angel Kidd scored only two points, but had nine assists and four steals.
“Starting off 0-1 is never good,” Poe said. “We really don’t like starting off losing; we always want to win. We don’t really get caught up in streaks or anything, we just want to win every game; that’s what we focus on. This was our first area game, so we wanted to start off the area schedule strong.”
The Golden Eagles jumped out to a 25-14 first-quarter lead and extended it to 49-25 at halftime. Tee Tee Jenkins led Saks (1-4) with 16 points.
“We’re playing pretty good,” Kirksey said. “We just have to get better on our defense.”
Pleasant Valley 53, Wellborn 46
The Raiders used a frantic full court press to rally from an early deficit and defeat Wellborn for a big road win. The press helped them overcome 25 dazzling points and nine rebounds from Wellborn’s Dymond Myles.
“Dymond kicked our butts up and down the court,” PV coach Jeremy Wallace said.”I will be honest with you — our job was to try and front her and keep the ball away from her and not let her torch us, and she still did.”
But in the end it was the relentless pressure that wore Wellborn down. The Panthers jumped out to a first-quarter lead and were up 18-13 in the second when Myles had to sit down with her third foul.
The Raiders took advantage of her absence to score nine straight points before Wellborn coach Stephen Gay could get her back in the game and ended the half on a 15-5 run to pull ahead. Mikala Simpson and McKinley Parris each had four points in that run for Pleasant Valley.
“We saw that Wellborn had trouble with the press in their last game and we wanted to press them the whole game,” Wallace said. “I was proud of my kids and the way they fought and played well and got in there and got the win. That is all that counts.”
The Raiders used their depth to their advantage as nine players hit the scoring column. Tiffany Williams had 11 second-half points to end up with 15. Atleigh Brannon had 12.
”Our girls are getting better and have improved a lot in the last couple of weeks; I am proud of that,” Gay said. “Their pressure was something. Dymond got winded some there in the second half, but she can take over a game and kept us in the game.”
— Brant Locklier
Cover photo: Jacksonville’s Virginia Poe (4) goes through some strategy with Ataliya Morgan during Tuesday night’s game at Saks.
Jacksonville 73, Saks 43
JACKSONVILLE (8-1) — Virginia Poe 10-12 0-0 23, Dasia Kirksey 7-10 1-2 15, Sierra Stone 5-6 0-0 10, Destiny Easley 2-5 1-1 6, Brandi Canady 2-2 0-2 4, Quenteeria Mooney 2-4 0-0 4, Kyra Williams 1-2 2-4 4, Nicole Goodson 1-2 1-3 3, Angel Kidd 1-1 0-0 2, Malieah Patterson 1-4 0-0 2, Darrien Martin 0-1 0-0 0, Ataliya Morgan 0-2 0-0 0, Kelsey Ervin 0-0 0-0 0, Aniyah Robinson 0-0 0-0 0, Tatiyana Thomas 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 32-51 5-12 73.
SAKS (1-4) – TeeTee Jenkins 7-12 2-5 16, Jordan Briskey 2-6 1-4 5, Talisha Christian 2-2 1-4 5, Miracle Denard 1-4 2-3 4, Malea Northard 1-3 1-3 3, Daja Johnson 0-3 3-4 3, Bre Browning 0-1 1-2 1, Tayler Teague 0-2 0-1 0. Totals 16-39 11-32 43.
Jacksonville 25 24 16 8 — 73
Saks 14 11 13 5 — 43
3-point goals: Jacksonville 4-8 (Poe 3-3, Easley 1-3, Mooney 0-1, Williams 0-1); Saks 0-4. Rebounds: Jacksonville 37 (Kirksey 9), Saks 24 (Jenkins 5). Total fouls: Jacksonville 25, Saks 15. Fouled out: Johnson, Browning.
Pleasant Valley 53, Wellborn 46
PLEASANT VALLEY — Kara Perry 2 0-2 4, Tiffany Williams 7 1-1 15, McKinley Parris 4 0-0 9, Atleigh Brannon 4 3-4 12, Kaitlyn Strickland 0 2-2 2, Kendall Johnson 0 0-0 0, Emily Cochran 0 0-0 0, Haily Taylor 0 1-2 1, Mikala Simpson 3 0-0 6, Baily Scott 1 0-0 2, Baily Turner 0 2-2 2. Totals 21 9-13 53.
WELLBORN — Dymond Myles 7 9-11 25, Markeisha Jones 0 0-0 0, Carlee Mullinax 2 1-2 6, Valencia White 1 1-2 3, Anaya Lowe 2 1-1 5, Caitlin Gamble 1 0-0 3, Dynasty Myles 1 2-4 4. Totals 14 14-20 46.
Pleasant Valley 7 19 15 12 — 53
Wellborn 13 8 14 11 — 46
3-point goals: Pleasant Valley 1 (Brannon); Wellborn 4 (Dym. Myles 2, Mullinax, Gamble).
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