Earle girls win scrap with Cross County

Earle girls win scrap with Cross County

Lady Bulldogs remain perfect in Conference play

By Mark Randall news@theeveningtimes.com It didn’t end pretty, but the Earle Lady Bulldogs (16-2,10-0) remained undefeated in conference with a 73-33 blowout of Cross County on Tuesday.

The game had to be called off with just under four minutes left to play when both benches cleared and got into a scuffle in a match that saw a lot of pushing and holding, but no calls by the referees.

“That was ugly,” said Earle Coach Corey Garrett.

“But we’ll take it.”

After a few early buckets by Cross County, Earle jumped out to a 24-9 lead at the end of the first and widened it to 49-24 at the half.

The Lady Thunderbirds played extremely physical throughout the game trying to out muscle Earle and get them off their game plan, perhaps as payback for Earle blowing Cross County out in their earlier matchup on Jan. 10 in Cherry Valley 101-30.

“I think that was the way they wanted to play it,” Garrett said. “They wanted to make it a physical game and try and rough us up and make us lose our composure. But for the most part, I think we handled it well.”

The Lady Bulldogs re-

See LADY BULLDOGS on Page 8

Roshala Scott (2) scored 32 points and had eight rebounds to lead the Lady Bulldogs over Cross County in convincing fashion. Carla Maples added 23 with four rebounds. T’asja Hughey had nine points and three rebounds in the win.

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mained unshaken, but the roughhousing drew multiple complaints from both coaches and players.

N’Kya Mathis was hit in the head in the second period and knocked out.

She left the game and was taken to the hospital for evaluation.

Garrett didn’t let the roughhousing throw them off their game.

“I told them at halftime to keep their composure.

Do not let them get to you. Play through the contact,” Garrett said. “We’ll absorb the contact and continue to play.”

Still, Garrett blamed the referees for not warning both sides and for letting things get out of hand.

“It was chippy on both ends,” Garrett said. “I’d say something to the refs.

Then they’d say something to the refs. We had a girl knocked out and no call.

She was literally knocked out and headed to the hospital . And it kind of went on from there.”

Earle was already down two players due to illness, but got a strong performance from its bench.

Tierra Rogers, Dekayla Anthony, and Takilya Tooms came off the bench and gave Earle some big minutes.

“It was a total team effort,” Garrett said. “I had girls step up. Those girls play, but not nearly as many minutes as they played tonight. So I was encouraged by that.”

The Lady Bulldogs put the game away in the third period leading 68-33 and held Cross County scores in the fourth before the game was called.

He two teams got into an all out brawl with 3:54 left to play in the fourth. The fight started after Kelsey Mathis was kicked in the chest intentionally while scrambling for the ball.

“One of their players kicked her in the chest not once, but twice,” Garrett said. “It was a blatant kick on the ground after the whistle was blown. And it kind of went down from there.”

Garrett said the referees never had control of the game let things get out of hand.

“It was poor officiating,” Garrett said. “They should have brought the girl sin and told them to clean it up. If not, then start calling fouls. But they didn’t do that. They never communicated

anything with the

coaches or the players.

I wouldn’t have been opposed to them calling a technical one each team to clean things up. But they didn’t. They allowed it to get out of hand. So I blame it on the refs.”

Garrett said he doesn’t know if Cross County was trying to rough them up as payback for the earlier loss.

He had the team switch to zone defense in the second half and deliberately slowed things down on offense because the game was already in hand.

“We slowed down,” Garrett said. “We didn’t press.

That’s why we went to zone. They kept shooting and we just kept getting the ball and getting up the floor. But we didn’t press them.

“The last time was on their coach. She didn’t want to let the clock run.

She refused to run the clock in the third. We could have gotten to 100 in this one. But we went to zone to protect my players from injury. And you see what happened in the end.”

Garrett said he was pleased with the effort, especially on the defensive side.

“Defensively, I think we were locked in,” Garrett said. “We gave up a couple of buckets to start the game, then clamped down.

So I think they played well and defensively we are where we need to be.”

Roshala Scott scored 32 points and had eight rebounds to lead the team. Carla Maples added 23 points and had four rebounds. T’asja Hughey chipped in nine points and had three boards.