By Chris McCarthy/Editor
Etowah dominated the second and third quarters on the way to a 55-34 victory over Glencoe in girls high school basketball on Tuesday (Dec. 17) at GHS.
Leading by six points after one period, the Lady Blue Devils (6-2) outscored the hosts 19 to 7 on the way to a 31-13 halftime lead.
Brooke Perry’s traditional three-point play with 3:03 left in the first half and Kiya Williams’ basket at 2:50 of the third quarter bookended a 22-0 Etowah run that essentially put the game out of reach.
The Lady Yellow Jackets (6-4) outscored the visitors 15 to 10 over the final eight minutes, but Glencoe head coach Yvette Sparks put the blame on her shoulders for her squad’s early struggles.
“I take full responsibility for us looking a little discombobulated out there. I changed our defensive plan of attack with short notice, and it gave our girls a new challenge. I wanted us to penetrate a little bit harder and shoot the gaps and try to draw some fouls and get us to the free throw line, and it was just a little too much for a young team like ours to take it all in. All in all, we did that, but it just took too much time off the clock to get it together.”
Maelin Trammell paced Etowah with 22 points, including 12 in the second half.
Brooke Perry added 13 points, followed by Kaelin Trammell with nine and Gabby Williams with eight.
Maddie Osborne and Jenan Napper each scored eight points for Glencoe.
Kaelin Trammell’s layup with just under a minute left in the first quarter gave the Lady Blue Devils a 12-6 advantage.
Katelyn Eubanks’ bucket at the 4:10 mark of the second period pulled the Lady Yellow Jackets within 19-13, but that was the last time that the hosts were within single digits.
Gabby Williams’ 3-point basket with 1:02 remaining in the second quarter capped a 12-0 Etowah run, and the visitors outscored Glencoe 12 to 6 in the third frame to go up by 43-19.
“It took a while, but I in the end I got exactly what I wanted tonight, so it was a tremendous learning experience for us,” said Sparks. “We’ve grown a lot, and I’m very proud of these girls. They have very good basketball IQs and they’re willing to give 100 percent of what I want them to do.”