J’ville rides big lead, big boards
- Updated: February 6, 2015
Golden Eagles crash the boards, crush Saks for area crown; includes county girls subregionals
By Al Muskewitz
East Alabama Sports Today
JACKSONVILLE – Ryan Chambless has preached all season long the importance of dominating the boards and the last couple days of getting out to a big lead. He got everything he wanted Friday.
Chambless’ second-ranked Jacksonville girls basketball team jumped on Saks early and completely ruled the boards in scoring an 81-48 victory for the Class 4A Area 11 championship. The Golden Eagles (24-4) now play Crossville at home in Monday’s sub-regional, while Saks travels to Area 12 champion Hokes Bluff.
Jacksonville scored 14 of the game’s first 16 points and opened a 22-9 lead at the end of the first quarter that they extended to 47-18 at halftime.
“What we did a good job of tonight that we didn’t do the last time we played them was we got off to a really good start,” Chambless said. “That’s what we preached for the last couple days. It’s a whole lot easier to play with a little bit of a lead than it is to play from behind or in a tight game because you never know the calls are going to go … I just wanted to get out to a good lead.”
And the Golden Eagles were able to get that big lead because they ruled the boards. They outrebounded Saks 60-32, had almost as many offensive rebounds (29) as the Wildcats had in total and scored 36 second-chance points.
Sierra Stone was head and shoulders above anyone the Wildcats could put on the boards and she had 19 rebounds to go with her 19 points; she had a major double-double by halftime (16 points, 14 boards). Dasia Kirksey had 13 boards to go with her 10 points.
“We want to outrebound everybody we play and we want to try to rebound with four on offense and get one back on D,” Chambless said. “Something I learned a long time ago in high school and was really preached at in college, you look at the percentages, the team that gets the most rebounds in a game is probably the one that won if you just look at one of the stats. I feel like we really hustled in there and got after it.”
The Wildcats made it a little easier for them when coach Michelle Lively took her best rebounder and put her on Virginia Poe, approaching her much the same way they did White Plains’ Amber Greenwood in the semifinals. Poe had 10 points, but the Golden Eagles had four other players score in double figures. Freshman Kyra Williams had 17 points, 11 in seven minutes in the first half.
“We made them look good,” Lively said. “We didn’t box out, so (Stone) ate up the block. Her role as a player is to run the floor like she just did, but block the block and get rebounds, and she did that tremendously.”
The all-tournament team includes Kirksey, Poe and Angel Kidd from Jacksonville; Miracle Dennard, Aliyah Simmons and Jordan Briskey of Saks; Cleburne County’s Chelsea Parker and White Plains’ Greenwood.
GIRLS BOX SCORE
Jacksonville 81, Saks 48
SAKS — Jordan Briskey 3-15 9-12 15, Miracle Denard 5-11 0-2 13, Aliyah Simmons 3-7 2-2 8, Maiya Northard 2-12 3-9 7, Tee Tee Jenkins 0-2 3-4 3, Daja Johnson 0-3 2-3 2, Parris Glover 0-0 0-0 0, Bre Browning 0-0 0-0 0, Talisa Christian 0-1 0-0 0, Tayler Teague 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 13-51 19-32 48.
JACKSONVILLE (24-4) – Sierra Stone 9-11 1-2 19, Angel Kidd 8-14 2-4 19, Kyra Williams 7-17 2-4 17, Dasia Kirksey 5-11 0-0 10, Virginia Poe 5-9 0-0 10, Destiny Easley 0-4 4-4 4, Brandi Canady 1-3 0-0 2, Quenteeria Mooney 0-1 0-0 0, Ataliya Morgan 0-5 0-0 0, Nicole Goodson 0-2 0-0 0, Malieah Patterson 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 35-77 9-14 81.
Saks 9 9 21 9 — 48
Jacksonville 22 25 18 16 — 81
3-point goals: Saks 3-13 (Briskey 0-1, Denard 3-6, Northard 0-5, Johnson 0-1); Jacksonville 2-11 (Kidd 1-1, Williams 1-4, Poe 0-1, Mooney 0-1, Morgan 0-4). Rebounds: Saks 32 (Jenkins 8); Jacksonville 60 (Stone 19, Kirksey 13). Total fouls: Saks 15, Jacksonville 22. Fouled out: Johnson. Officials: Caldwell, McDonald, Russell.
County girls teams in Northeast Subregional
(All games Monday)
Class 3A
Glencoe at Piedmont
Pleasant Valley at Ashville
Class 4A
Crossville at Jacksonville
Saks at Hokes Bluff
Class 5A
Mortimer Jordan at Anniston
Alexandria at Springville
Class 6A
Oxford at Fort Payne
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