By Staff
Justin Schuver, Hartselle Enquirer
The Falkville Blue Devils split against Good Hope Monday night at Drake Gym, with the girls taking a 52-37 win over the Raiders and the boys falling 69-50.
The Lady Blue Devils trailed 25-17 at the start of the second half, and were down three at the start of the fourth quarter. The offense, led by eighth grade point guard Emily Dabbs, exploded in the final period as the Lady Blue Devils outscored their opponent 21-9 over the last eight minutes. Falkville improved its overall record to 5-3 with the win.
"We started to run a little better offense (in the second half)," Falkville coach Jeff Andrews said. "We started to get a better pace going. (Good Hope) only had seven players, so our game plan was to push the tempo on them a little bit."
Dabbs was a key part of Falkville's offensive prowess down the stretch, as she scored 15 of her game-leading 24 points in the final quarter. She was 9-of-11 from the free-throw line in the quarter.
"As a team, we came in shooting about 42 percent (from the free-throw line) and we shot above 70 percent today," Andrews said. "That was a big part of our success tonight.
"(Dabbs) is like our quarterback. Our offense depends a lot on running through her and she did a good job tonight of shooting it when she needed to shoot it and penetrating when she needed to penetrate."
Katrina Wildmon also scored in double figures for the Lady Devils, finishing with 11. Tara Tucker and Kayla Widener each scored six points for Falkville. Wildmon also led the team with two steals.
Whitney Fowler led Good Hope with 14 points.
In the boys game, Falkville fell behind early and attempted a comeback before eventually falling by 19. The Raiders jumped out to a 34-14 lead at halftime, but the Blue Devils came out looking like a different team in the second half.
With 2:24 left in the third quarter, Falkville's Heath Alford picked off a Good Hope pass and laid it in for an easy lay-up that cut the Raiders' lead to just six points. The Blue Devils used a half-court press defense during most of the third quarter, confusing the Raiders and forcing turnovers that the Blue Devils were able to convert into easy points.
A buzzer-beating three-pointer by Good Hope's Nathan Brown made the score 50-38 in favor of Good Hope going into the fourth quarter, and from there the Raiders cruised to the victory.
Falkville's Alford led all scorers with 26 points. Adam Dye added nine and Nathan Riggins had six for the Blue Devils.
Nick Walling had 15 to lead Good Hope, followed by Alex Richter with 13. Good Hope improved its season record to 5-6.
Danville girls 56
West Morgan girls 34
The Lady Hawks led by just one point at halftime but broke away in the second half to an easy win over the Lady Rebels. Danville's record improved to 6-2 with the victory.
Kristen Sparkman led Danville with 19 points and also pulled down 10 rebounds to complete a double-double. Lauren Simmons came close to her own double-double, finishing with 12 points and nine rebounds.
Lauryn Kilgo led the way for West Morgan with 11 points.
West Morgan boys 63
Danville boys 61
Chris Vest's game-high 21 points were not enough as Danville lost at home in a squeaker to the Rebels. Stratton Garner added 12 points for the Hawks, whose record fell to 6-4.
Rod Goodlow led the Rebels with 15 points and seven rebounds.