Plenty of Patience
- Updated: January 6, 2019
Future looks bright for Jacksonville sophomore, who enjoyed a double-double in Saturday’s victory over Piedmont
Saturday’s girls scores
- Jacksonville 61, Piedmont 43
- Pleasant Valley 56, Talladega Co. Central 51
- Sacred Heart 70, Prattville Christian 61
- Spring Garden 43, Haralson County (Ga.) 29
By Al Muskewitz/East Alabama Sports Today
PIEDMONT – The team that won Saturday’s Jacksonville-Piedmont girls basketball game showed a lot of Patience and the team that didn’t could’ve stood to show a little bit more.
Sophomore Patience Carr scored 22 points, grabbed 10 rebounds, made five steals and played a big role defensively in her first game since before Christmas to lift Jacksonville over Piedmont 61-43.
“That girl, has come into her own this year,” Jacksonville coach Tres Buzan said. “She impresses me because she comes in early every day, works hard every day and keeps getting better and better. When you work like that you’re going to get better. All anybody needs to know about that girl is she’s not scared of anybody.”
And she was, well, um, impatient to get back in the game. The Lady Golden Eagles (6-8) didn’t play much over the holidays and the one game they did put together Carr missed because of a church trip, meaning she hadn’t played in a game since Dec. 18.
But it didn’t take long to make her presence felt. She scored the first basket of the game and had seven points in the first quarter as Jacksonville opened an early 14-9 lead. She started the second quarter with an aggressive three-point play to keep the Lady Bulldogs at arm’s length.
“I was excited to play,” Carr said. “I missed it a lot when I was out of town. I’m happy to be back and going on with my girls. We all were hyped to play this game.”
Just as important as her scoring was the defense she played on Sydney Prater, Piedmont’s main inside threat. Prater had 15 points in the game, but only five at halftime. The Lady Golden Eagles also did a good job of Piedmont’s outside threat, Kayley Kirk. Kirk scored 16 points, but had only two 3-pointers.
Piedmont struggled offensively partly because it didn’t show a lot of patience.
“I could’ve used a whole lot more patience and that’s our struggle right now,” Piedmont coach Terrace Ridley said. “We’re not patient enough on execution. We’re rushing stuff and just not settling down like I want us to.
“The game against Hokes Bluff we had that patience like I wanted in the first quarter. Then all of a sudden we get out of it. We’re trying to be a run-and-go team and we’re not a run-and-go team. We don’t have the depth to get in a running game with another team so when we do that we’re in trouble. That’s been our struggle.”
Madison Tyree did give the Lady Bulldogs a spark in the second half, hitting three 3-pointers in the third quarter as they tried to get back in it, but they didn’t sustain it. Jacksonville eventually pulled away with an 11-0 run in the fourth quarter.
Carr did most of damage in the first three quarters, then Kayla Broom, another sophomore, took over in the fourth, scoring 11 of her 16 points. Broom also had eight rebounds and six assists.
“She’s coming into her own,” Buzan said. “She’s not got Kyra (Williams) here anymore to be the lead and I think the first half of the season she really grew up learning like it’s me. She closed the game like we needed her to close the game. I feel like she’s only going to get better at that.
“This is a very young team and from the beginning of the season to now they have grown up tremendously. If they keep improving like they have been they’re going to be a team to reckon with in the future. We’re fighting to get better and that was a lot better than it has been. Good win.”
Cover photo: Jacksonville’s Patience Carr (13) guards Piedmont’s Sydney Prater.
Jacksonville 61, Piedmont 43
JACKSONVILLE (6-8) – Patience Carr 9-19 3-6 22, Kayla Broom 6-13 3-5 16, Amia Montgomery 6-10 0-0 12, Amarie Curry 1-2 3-3 5, Brenna Stone 1-5 1-2 3, TiAsia Williams 1-5 0-0 3, Malijah Goggins 0-4 0-0 0, Ashlynn Farr 0-0 0-0 0, Rebekah Gannaway 0-1 0-0 0, Aly Meagher 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 24-59 10-16 61.
PIEDMONT (6-6) – Kayley Kirk 6-14 2-4 16, Sydney Prater 3-16 9-13 15, Madison Tyree 4-6 0-2 11, Lele Ridley 0-1 1-2 1, Z’Hayla Walker 0-0 0-2 0, Kiara Jackson 0-3 0-0 0, Mackenzie Tolbert 0-0 0-0 0, Hannah Barbee 0-0 0-0 0, Armoni Perry 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 13-40 12-23 43.
Jacksonville 14 13 12 22 – 61
Piedmont 12 7 13 11 – 43
3-point goals: Jacksonville 3-18 (Carr 1-5, Broom 1-6, Montgomery 0-1, Williams 1-2, Goggins 0-3, Gannaway 0-1); Piedmont 5-18 (Kirk 2-8, Prater 0-3, Tyree 3-5, Jackson 0-2). Rebounds: Jacksonville 39 (Carr 10, Broom 8, Stone 8); Piedmont 34 (Ridley 7). Total fouls: Jacksonville 14, Piedmont 13. Officials: Howell, Barber, Rogers.
PLEASANT VALLEY 56, TALLADEGA CO. CENTRAL 51
TALLADEGA – Pleasant Valley got just the thing it needed heading into its push to the postseason. The Lady Raiders needed to play a team that would challenge their ability to stay engaged and TCC gave them all they could handle.
The Lady Raiders fell behind early, then staged a second-half comeback fueled by aggressive man defense and an offense led by Chandler Dorsett and Brooke Perry.
Dorsett hit six 3-pointers in the game, four in a personal 16-point third quarter, that helped the Lady Raiders cut a seven-point halftime deficit to four entering the fourth quarter and Perry scored eight of her 12 in the fourth to push them into the lead. Dorsett finished with 24 points. She had 21 Friday against Wellborn.
Pleasant Valley 56, TCC 51
PLEASANT VALLEY – Brooke Perry 5 2-2 12, Lindsey Pritchett 0 3-5 3, Rylee Haynes 1 0-0 2, Chandler Dorsett 7 4-4 24, Emma Hood 4 3-13, Karmyn Sparks 1 2-2 4. Totals 18 14-26 56.
TCC – Devona Gover 5 6-7 16, Ja’Miya Whitson 1 0-0 2, Alisha Morris 6 2-4 14, Davionna Stockdale 3 0-0 7, Anysiah Taylor 3 3-5 10, Mylea Gash 1 0-2 2. Totals 19 11-18 51.
Pleasant Valley 9 10 20 17 – 56
TCC 15 11 17 8 – 51
3-point goals: Pleasant Valley 6 (Dorsett 6); TCC 2 (Stockdale, Taylor). Fouled out: Haynes, Gover, Stockdale. Total fouls: Pleasant Valley 17, TCC 21.
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