Lady Bulldogs fight back to defeat Lady Jaguars

Lady Bulldogs fight back to defeat Lady Jaguars

rendering a halftime lead, Earle girls fight back to grind victory

sports@theeveningtimes.com

The Earle Lady Bulldogs (4-1 overall, 3-1 conference) defeated the McCrory Lady Jaguars 5443 last night.

The Lady Bulldogs carried a six-point lead into halftime, leading 22-16.

However, it took the ladies a while to regain the same productiveness in the third quarter. The Lady Bulldogs only scored two points in the first four and a half minutes of the second half. Earle Lady Bulldogs Head Coach Correy Garrett failed to find an explanation for the team’s struggles starting the second half.

“We just came out flat and couldn’t do much of anything,” Garrett said.

A spark of energy came off the bench late in the third quarter for the Lady Bulldogs in the form of Cadonnia Childs. Childs scored 11 of her 13 points in the second half.

“She’s real aggressive and she brings a lot of energy,” Garrett said. “That was one of the big differences in the game. She played a real big part in what we did tonight.”

After surrendering the lead in the third, the Lady Bulldogs got back on top and finally began to pull away in the fourth quarter.

Veronique Sanders sank a three, giving the Lady Bulldogs the lead with 3:08 to play. The fourth quarter three to increase the Lady Bulldogs lead was Sanders fourth of the night.

“Making those first couple of three’s, I really think that gave her some confidence and carried her through the rest of the game,” Garrett said.

Sanders finished as the team’s second leading scorer behind teammate Elaijha Brown. Brown scored 18 points in the contest, 15 coming in the second and fourth quarters combined.

Brown drained a threepoint shot as the buzzer sounded on the third quarter to give her Lady Bulldogs a two-point lead.

Brown went on to score the next five points for her team, contributing to the Lady Bulldogs ability to pull away from the Jaguars.

Coach Garrett takes pride in his ladies’ ability to fight through adversity in the middle of the game and come away with a win.

“We kept fighting,” Garrett said. “We clawed and clawed and found a way to win. I’m proud of the girls for finding a way to win even when we did- n’t have our best game but we have to improve in a lot of areas if we want to be the team we’re capable of being.”

The Lady Bulldogs tip off next at home against Buffalo Island Central on Dec. 9.

By Collins Peeples