By Chris McCarthy/Editor
The Gadsden City girls basketball team opened the 2015 portion of its schedule in fine fashion on Tuesday (Dec. 6), posting a 62-46 win over Class 5A No. 6 Anniston at GCHS.
The win, which was the teams’ 10th straight, moved the Class 7A No. 6 Lady Titans’ record to 16-2 on the season.
Although the hosts led from start to finish, they had to weather an Anniston run that cut a 15-point halftime advantage to four with a minute left in the third quarter.
Gadsden City closed out the period with a 7-2 stretch for a 40-33 lead, however, and opened the fourth quarter on a 10-4 run that put the Lady Titans up by double digits the rest of the way. The visitors closed within 50-40 with 2:36 remaining before Gadsden City finished out the contest on a 12-2 run.
Gadsden City shot 75 percent (12-for-16) from the free throw line compared to 36 percent (4-for-11) for the Lady Bulldogs.
“They changed up their press a little bit in the second half, and we came up a little flat,” said GCHS head coach Jeremy Brooks. “They made a few shots and we looked out of synch. But this team seems to go in spurs in that we look pretty bad for a few minutes and then we’ll score 10, 12 or 14 points in a few minutes. In the first half, we actually were glad that they pressed us because we got some transition points off some turnover and kept the game up-tempo. Our man-to-man offense was really clicking and gave us some easy lay ups and back-door buckets.”
Haley Troup paced the Lady Titans with 18 points, followed by Ebony Malone and Taylor Tucker with 12 each. Troup, Tucker and Burns each had five assists.
Brooke Burns had the hot hand early on, scoring eight of her 10 points in the first quarter as Gadsden City took a 12-5 lead.
After the Lady Bulldogs drew within seven points early in the second frame, Tucker’s 3-pointer at 6:15 ignited an 11-3 run that helped push the GCHS advantage to 29-14 at halftime.
But Anniston opened the second half with a full-court press, a strategy that allowed the visitors to narrow the gap to 31-27 at the 4:13 mark.
“Anniston’s always a scrappy team, and I told our girls at halftime that they would come back at us and make another run,” said Brooks. “They came back and made it game for a while. We were 2-for-16 from the three-point line tonight, so in the second half we had to find other way to score.”
The Lady Bulldogs’ press eventually ran out of steam, and Malone’s traditional three-point play in the closing moments of the third restored the Lady Titan lead to 40-31. Troup scored 10 points in the fourth quarter to help put the game out of reach.
Kyianna Bullcok scored 18 points for Anniston, followed by Raven Cooley with 14.
“We’re playing a pretty tough schedule, so game after game we’re getting challenged,” said Brooks. “Hopefully we’ll continue to improve.”