COVINGTON, Ga. – It was a successful two-game slate for the Eastside Eagles, as both the boys and girls squads defeated the Walnut Grove Warriors on Tuesday.
The Lady Eagles set the tone early, nearly shutting out the Lady Warriors in the first quarter and not looking back. Led by senior Jarilix Rivera-Villarini and sophomore Kam Davis, the Lady Eagles coasted to a 56-18 victory.
While the boys team did not win as decisively, the Eagles maintained control for most of the game. Big man Christian Gatewood turned in yet another dominant performance to give the Eagles a 58-48 win over Walnut Grove.
Lady Eagles overcome odd start to secure dominant victory
Tuesday’s contest started on the bizarre side, as Walnut Grove began the game with two free throws due to a pregame technical foul. But after the Lady Warriors knocked down one of the free throws, they would not score again in the first quarter.
Instead, it was the combination of Rivera-Villarini, Davis, Donee Morain and Nyla Smith who brought the Lady Eagles to a 15-1 lead to end the first quarter. Two scary moments involving injury scares for Morain and Ari Carter caused both players to leave the game during the quarter, but both later returned.
The Lady Warriors nailed their first field goal in the form of a three-pointer by Ellie Clower shortly after the beginning of the second quarter. While Walnut Grove was able to tack on eight more points after that, another 15-point frame for Eastside gave the Lady Eagles a 30-12 lead heading into halftime.
Eastside’s scoring juggernaut did not stop in the third quarter, as the Lady Eagles put together a 16-0 run to put the game out of reach. Rivera-Villarini’s 10-point quarter led Eastside to an insurmountable 50-16 lead.
With a six-minute fourth quarter, both teams added minimal scoring to end the game with a final of 56-18.
“I think we played well,” said head coach Rod Baker. “We’re working on defense and we’re putting points up. I think our shooting percentage has improved – we’ve been struggling with shooting lately – but we’ve improved on that.”
Rivera-Villiarini ended the game with 19 points, while Davis added 13 points. Lou Lake and Lottie Smith led the Lady Warriors with five points each.
With the win, the Lady Eagles are now 2-1 in region play and 7-5 overall.
Gatewood delivers another big performance in Eagles victory
While Walnut Grove may have gotten the first shot, the Eagles were the ones that started hot.
A three-pointer by Jevon Sullivan, followed by a triad of Gatewood buckets in the paint, gave the Eagles a thunderous start. Seniors Josiah Johnson and KD Davis followed with tough shots to give the Eagles a 17-5 lead with two minutes left in the first quarter.
The first frame ended with three-pointers from Walnut Grove’s Ty Burce and Ty Ferguson, foreshadowing what was to come.
Burce had the hot hand throughout the second frame, nailing shots left and right. An assist to Billy Hendrix tied the game at 24-24 with 2:30 left in the second quarter.
But the Eagles weren’t finished either. Gatewood found paydirt two more times, while Jevon Sullivan and Johnson capped off an eight-point run to give the Eagles a 32-24 lead to end the half.
Sharpshooter Jordan Poole got things rolling immediately with a three-pointer out of the halftime break. His efforts, along with Roman Sullivan and Iverson Freeman, extended the lead by 14 points.
While the Eagles were able to contain Burce in the third quarter, they couldn’t contain Ferguson, who continued to knock down shots every time he had the ball in his hands. A three-pointer at the top of the fourth quarter brought Eastside’s lead within nine.
Gatewood, however, was not privy to let that stand. Accumulating six points and two blocks, the 6-foot-6 junior led the charge in leading the Eagles to a 58-48 victory.
While head coach Dorrian Randolph was pleased with his team’s win, he noted that the performance was “underwhelming.”
“We were in Tennessee recently and we were playing these different ranked teams from different states… there was a little bit more energy,” Randolph said. “... Then you come back home and you go back to the same old unforced turnovers, missed layups and the defense wasn’t as good as I expected it to be.”
One unique facet of Eastside’s win on Tuesday was the different on-court packages Randolph presented. While Eastside is known for running four guards and one big man, Randolph went against the grain at times, sometimes playing an all-guard and double-forward lineup at times.
Randolph said that he may look for ways to incorporate that in future contests.
“It depends,” Randolph said. “Now I have to go back and look at the data and see which lineups were efficient.”
Leading the way was Gatewood, who had 17 points, seven rebounds, five blocks and five dunks. In recent games, he has fit the true big man role.
“Coming into this season, it was known they wanted to push me out to get some shots… but some of the coaching staff also didn’t want me to forget what made me like this,” Gatewood said. “Last year I made my money off the low block and we were fortunate to go against a smaller opponent. So today, I had to get back to that.
“While I’m trying to improve on some aspects of my game, it’s important to not forget the other aspects.”
Poole added 11 points while Johnson and Jevon Sullivan added nine points. Burce and Ferguson each had 13 points for Walnut Grove.
Eastside is now 2-1 in region play and 10-5 overall.
What’s next
Both squads play again on Friday, Jan. 9 in home matchups against Madison County. The girls will start at 7 p.m. and the boys will play at 8:30 p.m.
