Monroe basketball runs past Columbus with two big wins

ALBANY — The Monroe Golden Tornadoes (19-6) and Lady Tornadoes (19-6) breezed past Columbus Friday night in their final regular season games of the year with matching season records. The boys topped the Blue Devils 67-36 while the girls blew out Columbus 51-11.

Monroe’s speed advantage was evident from the beginning of the boy’s game and an alley-oop slam dunk by Justin Burns was followed by a slam by An’Drico Jackson on the next fast break the Tornadoes were up 14-3. Monroe increased the lead to 23-7 early in the second quarter when Lorenzo Still swished a three from the corner and Monroe led 27-10 at the half.

Columbus opened the second half hot with three consecutive three-point shots that led Monroe head coach Michael Hoffpauir to call time. The Blue Devils had shortened Monroe’s lead to just 32-19. From then on it was all Monroe. The Tornadoes led 42-26 heading into the final quarter and outscored the Blue Devils 25-10 in the final period with several substitutes in the game.

Jackson led Monroe with 19 points on the night. Justin Burns followed with 11 and John Burns added 10.

The girl’s game was all Monroe from the start to the end. Senior AaLiyah Robinson scored 22 points and grabbed 15 rebounds to lead the Lady Tornadoes. Cierra Lunsford put in 14 points and pulled down 10 rebounds while Saniyah Graham added 11 points.

As the number two seeds in the region, both Monroe teams earned trips directly to the region semi-finals and do not have to play in the preliminary games. The Monroe boys will play Wednesday at Dougherty and the girls will play Wednesday at Carver. Dougherty’s boys will play the lowest seed left after the preliminary games and Monroe will play the other winner. If the Dougherty girls win their game Monday, they will play Monroe at Carver in Columbus on Wednesday.

Joe WhitfieldJoeWhitfield[email protected]