Trifecta

ALBANY — For the first time, the Tornadoes have defeated Dougherty, Westover and Albany in the span of just one week, completing clean sweep of its city rivals.

That feat was capped off Saturday when Robert Arnold scored 14 points, 10 coming in the second half as Herald No. 1 and unbeaten Monroe survived a suffocating zone defense to grind out a 49-44 victory against the Indians at home. Brandon Blakely added 13 points, including three crucial 3-pointers in the first half to help etch their names in history.

“Really? I didn’t know that,” Monore coach Marquis Davis said after the game when told what his program had just accomplished. “That’s really something considering how good the teams are in this city.

“This is big for our school and for our players.”

Blakely couldn’t agree more.

“It feels good to be part of a great team with great coaches,” Blakely said. “Beating Dougherty, Westover and Albany in one week is important because we had to perform at our highest level to do it.”

Albany used a zone defense for the majority of the game, hoping to negate Monroe’s height advantage and forcing the Tornadoes into an outside game. And the strategy nearly worked. But Blakely canned two three pointers in the first half to help push Monroe to a 30-24 halftime advantage.

“We are going to see a lot of zone defenses from here on out. We are counting on Brandon to open things up for us on the outside,” Davis said. ” Coming off a big win (Friday night at Westover), I thought we’d come out a little flat and we did.

“But we played decent enough to win.”

Monroe opened the third period with a three from Blakely and a pair of buckets to spurt to 37-24 lead, which was their largest of the night. The Indians, however, answered with a 9-0 run, capped by a Larry Sanford three-pointer to cut the gap to four points, 37-33, with 2:37 remaining in the quarter.

But the Indians could get no closer than five points the rest of the way. Albany, which fell to 7-6 with the loss, forced Monroe to play its game, but could never hit the shots it needed to make Monroe sweat.

“I couldn’t ask for more from this team,” Albany coach Archie Chatmon said. “They did everything we told them to do. We knew we couldn’t match up with them (Monroe) so we packed in a zone and tried to slow down the game. We did everything we needed to do to win except hit the shots we needed.

“The difference in this game was Monroe’s size. But despite the loss, I’m happy. We grew up some (Saturday night).”

Tim Pierce led the Indians with 12 points while Sanford added 9 on three three-pointers.

Albany will entertain Brooks County next Tuesday, while Monroe hosts Perry.

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MONROE GIRLS 44, ALBANY 38:

Ashley Johnson scored 19 points, 16 coming in the second half, as the Lady Tornadoes rallied from a 16-11 halftime deficit to beat Albany Saturday night.

Albany’s Chasity Mullins scorednine points in the first period as the Squaws (3-9) grabbed an 11-0 lead at the end of the first period.

Albany held the lead until early in the fourth quarter when Johnson’s bucket pushed the Lady Tornadoes, which upset Herald No. 3 Westover on Friday, into a their first lead, 29-28 at the seven-minute mark.

The lead then changed hands five times as time wound down before Shaniqua Young’s three-pointer broke a tied game, giving Monroe (5-8) a 41-38 lead it would not relinquish.

Mullins led Albany with 19 points.