A good game against East Rankin would lock up the No. 3 seed for the Winston Academy Patriots and help the team get closer to securing a winning record that has been hard to come by at times in recent years.
WA had to win by 11 points over ERA to get that three seed and coach Gary Beals’ team would leave no doubt with a 64-45 victory to get a win on Tuesday evening.
“I thought the boys came out on Tuesday night and played with some energy. We shot it and we moved the ball well against the zone,” Beals said. “We attacked it instead of taking the first look. We didn’t settle.”
The shots were falling early and often for WA in the game as it was able to drop 22 points in the first quarter. Omar Scott was leading the way scoring with 11 points in that first stanza to get a 22-16 lead. It was 40-30 at halftime and the team would push the game out of reach in the third quarter with a 59-37 lead as Beals would get some bench players time in the fourth.
It was Scott in the first half and Secatra Miller in the second half for WA helping the team to a win. Miller scored 22 points in the game with 17 in the second half while Scott finished with 18 and scored 16 in the first two quarters. Trey Williamson also had double figures with 10 points as it was a team effort for WA.
In the second game of the week at Kemper Academy, the Patriots overcame a tough start to explode in the second quarter and grab a 53-36 victory for back-to-back wins to end the regular season.
WA trailed 11-9 after the first quarter but outscored Kemper 21-2 in the second allowing them to build a lead. Scott had 18 points yet again in that game while Miller finished the night with 11.
The win improved the Patriots to 13-10 on the year and assured that they will finish the year with a winning record. The team played the first round of the tournament at East Rankin on Tuesday in a game that took place after press time.
“Lamar is going to play us a zone and we’ve got to be very patient,” Beals said. “We’ve got to attack it from the inside and if we can do that and get Omar in the game, hopefully that can help us with the outside shots. They’re bigger and limit us on the inside so we’ve got to hit shots.”
Girls
WA had the same matchups last week but had a split decision in their games.
Against East Rankin, it was a struggle to score outside of Hailey Bradford again for WA. ERA held the team to just 10 points in the first half as they fell behind by nearly 20 points and would go on to a 46-29 victory.
The Winston Lady Pats managed just four points in the first quarter and all four of those came from Bradford. She finished the game with 12 points and five rebounds. WA was able to cut into that lead in the third quarter outscoring ERA 13-4, but there just wasn’t enough on the offensive end.
“We played hard against East Rankin. It was a single digit ball game with 4:30 left but we just go through scoring droughts,” Beals said. “You can’t have those droughts in this league. We’ve got to convert against the good teams.”
In the matchup with Kemper Academy, WA didn’t surrender more than single digits in a quarter and won big, 54-21. Bradford had a big game with 20 points, four rebounds and two steals and shot 7-of-12 from the field. Betsy Karson Hatcher had nine point, eight steals and five rebounds, Madi Lee had seven points, five steals, four rebounds and three assists and Mason Smith finished with six points, six assists, and five boards.
WA is now 13-12 on the season and finished the district schedule 2-8 to get the No. 5 seed in the tournament. That set up yet another matchup with East Rankin which took place on Tuesday night.
“I think we’ve got a shot,” Beals said. “We were very vanilla in the last meeting and tried some different things. I think if we get the ball out and push it, we have a chance,” Beals said. “They have three girls that can shoot it really well and a couple of bigs. We want to get into their bench.”
