Monroe girls pound Crisp County

ALBANY — Monroe picked up its seventh win of the season, pounding Crisp County 77-16 Tuesday night at Monroe High School.

The game started with the Lady Tornadoes getting off to a 13-1 lead. Their full-court press suffocated Crisp County and led to countless turnovers and fast-break points.

They ended the first quarter up 19-2. Head coach Jenifer Acree said it was important her team got off to a quick start.

“It was huge,” she said. “You always want to come out and play tough at the beginning of the game, as well as the beginning of each quarter. When you do that, it really sets the momentum high for the team, so I thought that was a good start for us.”

In the second quarter, Monroe nearly held Crisp County scoreless and went into the halftime break with a 47-3 lead.

The Lady Cougars were able to get some sort of offense going in the fourth quarter as they scored eight points, matching the amount of points they scored in the previous three quarters combined.

Acree said she felt good about the level of intensity her team played throughout the game. At one point, she had four freshmen on the floor late in the game and was very pleased. Most importantly, they ended the game with a big win and without any injuries.

The Lady Tornadoes are 7-3 on the season and have won five of their last six games. Acree said the main reasoning behind their quick start is “just trying to step up our defensive intensity.”

“Once we get an identity offensively, we’re gonna be a pretty good team, but right now we’re focusing on our defense,” she added.

Key Key Price led all scorers with 24 points, followed by Kelsey Davis with 12 and Fantaza Stroud with 10.

For the Lady Cougars, Niqueria Jones led the team with eight points.

Crisp County is still looking for their first win of the season and will try to get it against Americus-Sumter on the road this Saturday.

The Lady Tornadoes will compete in a tournament later this month and Acree said they’ll use those games to work out some early season kinks.

“The biggest thing is to continue building chemistry,” she said. “Next time we play, we’ll have one more player to add back to the mix…and just continue to play hard as a unit defensively.”

CRISP COUNTY BOYS 37, MONROE 36: It was a game the Monroe Tornadoes would like that have back. Despite being up double digits in the third quarter, they wound up losing to Crisp County at home.

The Tornadoes took a 33-21 lead with about six minutes left in the third quarter. The Cougars got to work on both ends of the floor holding the Tornadoes scoreless for the remainder of the quarter, while scoring nine straight points. They cut the lead to just three heading into the fourth.

“It wasn’t so much what they were doing, we were up ten points and then missed four straight layups,” Monroe head coach Marquis Davis said. “You can’t do that against good teams in this region. I think that was a key point in the game.”

The fourth quarter saw both teams holding the ball and running the clock down. Dontavious Tolbert got a steal as Monroe was trying to squeeze the clock and took it all the way for two to put the Cougars up 37-36 with about 1:20 left. Monroe would run the clock down and get a good shot off with 5.4 seconds left, and then a tip in that was waved off for not beating the buzzer.

The loss is the Tornadoes’ third in a row and their fifth in the last six games. Davis said the key to turning this season around is to remain patient and execute.

“I thought we executed a whole lot better tonight, it’s just this region is real tough,” he said. “And you really have to play well. You have to limit the turnovers and capitalize on every opportunity, and I think that’s what we haven’t been doing … capitalizing on those opportunities.”

Julius Nelson and Trentavious Jackson led the Tornadoes in scoring with eight points apiece.

Crisp County’s Primetime Hamilton led all scorers with 12 points.