VALDOSTA — It was an emotional night for the Valdosta Wildcats, but that didn’t stop them from carving up the Northside-Warner Robins Eagles.
The Wildcats were playing without Dontavius Sapp, whose mother passed away Friday. As a tribute to his absent teammate, sophomore Jay Rome wore Sapp’s No. 25 jersey and did it justice. Rome scored 29 points and hauled in 13 rebounds, as the Wildcats crushed the Eagles, 87-58.
“He was a man,” Wildcats coach Rufus McDuffie said of Rome. “He scored 29 and had 13 rebounds. I don’t know how many free throws he made, but he made a good percentage of them. He came out and dominated.”
The Wildcats are now 15-0 and 4-0 in region play.
The ’Cats jumped on the Eagles right out of the gate. On the ’Cats’ first possession of the game, Thoullit Hunter threw an alley oop to Rontrel Frazier, who dunked it and brought the crowd to its feet.
Northside managed to keep its composure and kept the game close. It was 13-12 Valdosta in the first quarter, but from there, the ’Cats broke it open behind some deadly shooting from Hunter.
Hunter knocked down three 3-pointers in the span of just over a minute to help Valdosta build a 26-14 lead.
“That gave us a lot of energy and momentum,” McDuffie said. “We felt like we had played well in the first half, but we thought we had given up too many easy baskets. That’s why they were still in the ball game.”
Then Freddy Thompson nailed a 3-pointer at the buzzer to end the first quarter to give Valdosta a 31-17 advantage.
Valdosta led by 15 points at the half, and proceeded to fully dismantle the Eagles in the third quarter. The ’Cats outscored the Eagles 29-9 in the third to put the game on ice.
“We got a couple of steals and hit a couple of threes and easy layups,” McDuffie said. “We scored four times in a few seconds, and that gave us a big lead.”
Hunter finished the game with 13 points, while Nehemiah Banks and Cameron Venus added 12 points each.
Demario Black led the Eagles with 16 points.
Lady Eagles 45, Lady Wildcats 35
The Lady Wildcats led the Lady Eagles for much of the first half on Saturday night, but were unable to hold on for the win, as Northside won, 45-35.
Playing without the injured Kendra Patrick, the Lady ’Cats were unable to come up with enough offense to win.
“We didn’t play well at all tonight,” Lady Wildcats coach Julie McCutcheon said. “We came out extremely flat. There was no excuse. We went into an overtime game (Friday) night, but they also went into an overtime game (Friday) night. We were just flat.”
Alisha Crawford scored nine of the Lady ’Cats first 12 points to help her team jump out to 12-9 lead.
It wasn’t enough though, and Northside took its first lead of the night midway through the second, 14-13, on a layup by Jasmine Wilson.
The Lady ’Cats came back to take a 16-15 lead late in the first half, but the Lady Eagles scored four consecutive points to end the half and took a 19-16 lead into the break.
Northside then started the second half on a 10-0 run. It didn’t get much better for the Lady ’Cats. Northside’s Ladarria Clark made a layup while being fouled as time ran out in the third. After Clark made her free throw, the Lady Eagles led, 36-23.
Valdosta opened the fourth quarter with a 6-0 run, and halfway through the quarter, Alexis Brown hit a 3-pointer to bring the Lady ’Cats within four.
However, that 3-pointer would be the last basket the Lady ’Cats made on the night. Both teams went scoreless over the final three minutes.
“I thought we had some momentum going in the fourth quarter,” McCutcheon said. “We didn’t answer the call tonight, that’s the bottom line. Nobody stepped up and played.”
The Lady ’Cats are now 1-3 in region play.
Both Valdosta basketball squads will be back in action on Tuesday at Coffee. The girls start at 6 p.m., while the boys play afterwards.
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Wildcats beat Northside, remain undefeated
Rome scores 29 in 87-58 victory
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