COVINGTON, Ga. – Tuesday’s home contests between the Eastside Eagles and the Midtown Knights ended in two decisive losses for the Eagles.
Despite respectable offensive performances in different parts of the games from both the boys and girls squads, the Eagles fell short. The Eastside Lady Eagles lost to the Lady Knights 77-54, while the Eastside boy’s team lost 70-46.
Lady Eagles fall short against strong Midtown offense
The Lady Eagles struggled to get going against the Lady Knights, only scoring 12 points in the first quarter.
It was Lady Knights’ senior guard Devin Bockman who took the game into her hands early on, scoring 16 of Midtown’s 26 points in the first quarter.
The offensive struggles continued for the Lady Eagles in the second quarter, only adding four points. The Lady Knights added 17 points in the second frame to go up 43-26 at the half.
Lady Eagles head coach Gladys King kept her team in the locker room up until the 30-second mark during halftime. This turned out to be the spark that the Lady Eagles needed as they put up 21 points in the third quarter.
Senior Jailyn Williams led the team in the third frame with seven points, while Alyssa Hartman, Ari Carter, Morgan Sandema and Jarilix Riviera all added their own contributions. Williams and Sandema continued their strong second half performances, adding six points each in the fourth quarter.
However, it was Lady Knights senior combo guard Sinclair Richman that made the difference, scoring 14 points in the second half, including four made three-pointers in the third quarter.
In the end the offensive performance for the Lady Knights was too much to overcome, as the Lady Eagles lost 77-54.
Bockman finished with 30 points for Midtown, while Richman contributed 27. Williams finished with the team-high 17 points for the Lady Eagles.
In describing her takeaways from the Lady Eagles’ performance, King said her team needed to be prepared to play the whole game, and not just one half.
“Making sure that we don’t give up and turn the switch on halfway through, play the whole game starting from the beginning,” King said.
King also said she wants the team to remember what is being worked on in practice.
“Just hustling, following your shot, rebounding the basketball, getting in the paint and being aggressive,” King said. “[Those are] things we do at practice, so I don’t understand why we’re not doing them.”
With the loss, the Lady Eagles fall to 0-2. They are back in action Saturday at home against the Alcovy Tigers with a start time of 1:30 p.m.
Third quarter performance makes the difference for Eagles-Knights contest
The Knights immediately got the contest started with an 8-0 run, setting the tone for what would be a strong offensive performance.
The Eagles, however, would not be deterred as they drove back. Complete with a poster dunk from sophomore Christian Gatewood, the Eagles trailed 15-17 to end the first quarter.
Both teams added eight points in the second quarter to end the half at 23-25. In total, seven Eagles players scored in the first half.
But it was the third quarter that made the difference in this game, as Midtown scored 30 points in comparison to Eastside’s eight points. It was Midtown’s Darrion Hadley and Zuri Mesquitte who put the majority of the points that put the game out of reach for the Eagles.
Eastside attempted to march toward a comeback, with sophomore reserve guard Iverson Freeman leading the charge. But it was too little, too late as the Eagles fell 70-46 and 1-1 overall.
Josiah Johnson and Lejuan Hayes led all scorers with eight points a piece, while Freeman had seven and Javian Perry contributed for six.
Head coach Dorrian Randolph said that he needed to do a better job of crafting a second-half gameplan.
“We always come out slow in the third quarter,” Randolph said. “As a coach I gotta do a better job figuring out why do we start slow in the third quarter.”
Randolph also confirmed to The Covington News that there would be a change to the starting lineup, based on the performance of the reserve players.
“As a coach I have to make sure everyone knows there are no spots,” Randolph said. “Everybody’s fighting for minutes.”
One of those new starters could be Freeman, according to Randolph.
The Eagles will be back in action on Saturday against the Alcovy Tigers at 3 p.m. at Eastside High School.
