Lady Eagles rout Baker, Fla., 51-23; Gators tops boys 48-36

Pleasant Home’s girls got some work done during a 51-23 rout over Baker, Fla., Friday night on the first day of the Alabama-Florida Shootout.

The Lady Eagles tried several different schemes on no particular side of the ball, which helped contribute to the win, PHS coach Jerry Davis said.

“I can say for the majority of it, we did a lot of stuff tonight,” Davis said. “We got to do things — I’m not going to say offensively or defensively — we got to do a lot of things that we worked on.”

Most of the work the Lady Eagles put in the game came in spurts, especially late in the fourth period.

With a 37-17 lead with 4:53 to go, PHS scored eight quick points after a full-court defensive press was called.

Davis said the late pressure is one of several different schemes.

“We’ve kind of added gradually as we’ve gone,” he said. “The girls who are doing most of the playing are starting to understand the majority of what we’re doing.

“As we get into next week, it’s all for real,” he said in regards to area play. “We find out who’s going to be playing for home court. That’s the most important games you play for all year.”

With this victory, the Lady Eagles improve to 8-5 on the season. The girls will play Laurel Hill at 6 tonight in their final game of the shootout.

PHS senior guard Brianna Dozier had a heck-of-a-night on the boards. She grabbed 16 rebounds (9 defensive, 7 offensive), along with scoring seven points.

Cassidy Godwin, a sophomore, also had a good night for PHS, as she put together a double double 12 points and 12 rebounds.

Dozier started her rebounding night early in the first period after grabbing a missed free throw from fellow senior, Ashley Williamson. Dozier tossed it out to Anna Bulger, who then made a jumper to put PHS ahead 3-0.

Baker’s Ashley Black then got a jumper to cut it to one, and then after tying the game at 4-all a short time later, PHS then started a 18-0 run for the rest of the first half on a 3-pointer buzzer beater from junior Jade Self.

PHS started amping up its pressure during the second period.

Abby Walker’s two foul shots put the Lady Eagles ahead 20-4 with 2:24 left in the first half; and Dozier’s successful 1-and-1 got their team to a 22-4 lead at halftime, thanks to a couple missed shots late by Baker.

Self, who led PHS with 16 points, opened her scoring in the third period with a 3-pointer. Godwin later got two foul shots and a jumper for a 31-10 lead.

With less than four seconds left in the third, Self got a pull up jumper for a 33-14 lead going into the fourth period.

Godwin got it to 36-17 with a drive in the paint, and Self made it 37-17 on a foul shot.

Williamson then got a put back; Bulger got a steal and Self made the conversion for a 41-17 lead. Self then got another layup off of a rebound for a big 43-17 lead.

Dozier and Walker later got drives to the paint, and Johnnie Forehand got a runner to go.

Williamson chipped in eight points for PHS.

Lily Phillp led BHS with 10 points.

Baker boys 48, Pleasant Home boys 36

A lack of execution and the fact that some players didn’t play much because they missed practice were the keys that helped lead the Eagles to their 12-point, 48-36 loss to Baker last night, PHS boys coach Bradley Stephens said.

“I had three starters miss, but it’s one of those things that it’s just — it goes back to the same old, same old — just lack of execution,” Stephens said. “Once we execute we’ll be fine.”

Baker launched out to a 10-2 lead in the first period on a floater from Austin Walthers, who was hot all night for the Gators. BHS led 13-9 after the first period.

PHS fought back from a 19-11 deficit in the second period by playing good defense for a short while, and getting the ball inside to the tall or bigger players.

Alex Myrick, who led PHS with 13 points, got a drive to make it 19-13, and Chase Gunter later found George Weaver for an easy bucket for a 19-15 spread. Gunter then found Troy Fantroy after a failed BHS conversion on offense to bring it to 19-17.

Myrick later got a put back at the end of the second, and the Eagles trailed 26-21 at the break.

Myrick scored four quick points at the mid-point of the third to bring it back to two at 29-27, but the Gators pulled away off of missed PHS shots and failed rebounding to take a 31-27 lead into the fourth.

Baker’s Brooks Taylor shot a 3-pointer to put the Gators ahead 37-30 to put the game way out of reach for the Eagles.

In the last few minutes, PHS put in one of its last groups, who played pretty well, Stephens said.

“They came out there and played hard, and got some cheap baskets,” he said. “A lot of the issues tonight is that they’ve (Baker) been playing (more games). We haven’t been playing is one issue. We ran out of gas, and we couldn’t do what we wanted to do.”

Gunter chipped in eight points.

Walthers led BHS with 15 points. Justin Morgan had 12 points.

PHS plays Laurel Hill tonight at 7:30.