Lady Pirates fall to Tuscaloosa Academy 32-18

BY BRIAN HAMILTON, Editor

Both teams got off to a slow start, but Tuscaloosa Academy would get just enough from Kelsey Curry, Chloe Johnson, and Amity White to defeat Pickens Academy 32-18 Thursday night. The Lady Pirates lost to TA 41-11 back in December, but would hold their own in the contest on their home court.

“We played really good defense and did a good job on Curry and Johnson,” Pickens Academy head coach Wade Goodman said. “When you can hold them to that, that’s solid defense.”

Johnson got the Lady Knights on the board first with a three-point basket. The score would remain 3-0 until Johnson made a layup with 1:58 left in the first quarter for a 5-0 lead. TA would hold a 5-0 lead at the end of the first quarter, as both teams struggled shooting the ball early.

Goodman lit into his team after the first quarter, knowing that his team had to take advantage of TA’s poor shooting early on.

“We missed three wide open threes and two layups in the first quarter,” Goodman said. “If we just make two layups and one three, we’re up 7-5 and then the pressure is on them. We just couldn’t make them in.”

The Lady Pirates finally got on the board when Audrey Fondren converted 1-of-2 free throws to cut the TA lead to 5-1 with just under seven minutes left in the second quarter. Sahar Aryanpure then made a layup to push the Lady Knights’ lead to 7-1. A free throw by Caroline Lewis and a basket by Jessi Latham would cut the lead to 7-4 with 4:48 left before halftime.

Pickens Academy would not score again in the first half, as TA went on a 6-0 run to take a 13-4 lead into intermission.

Britney Fitch hit a three-pointer to open the second-half, cutting the Lady Pirates’ deficit to 13-7, however, TA would soon push the lead back to 17-9. Two free throws by Lewis would cut the Lady Knights’ lead down to five, at 17-12.

Tuscaloosa Academy had pushed the lead to 19-12 when Latham found Shelby Lowe with a nice pass underneath to cut the lead back to five and the Lady Pirates would trail 21-14 after three quarters of play.

The Lady Knights would take their first double-digit lead of the game, as they went up 26-16 with 3:04 left in the game. A layup by Aryanpure and a free throw by Johnson would increase TA’s lead to 29-16, followed by a steal and layup by Amity White, making the score 31-16 with just under a minute remaining.

Latham would convert two free throws on Pickens Academy’s next possession to make the score  31-18, but the Lady Pirates would fall 32-18.