Albany Tech sweeps Brewton Parker JV

ALBANY — Youth and experience didn’t get stop the Albany Tech Lady Titans from taking care of business at home Wednesday night. In front of a sizable homecoming crowd, the Lady Titans used a solid fourth quarter to defeat Brewton Parker 64-49 and earn their first win of the season to improve to 1-2 on the season.

Albany Tech held on to a narrow lead throughout the game, entering the halftime break up 30-27. In the fourth quarter, they held a slight 50-45 lead until Asiana Almond converted a layup to make it a nine-point game. Then on the fastbreak, Laquesha Newkirk found Tyesha Davis for two to push the lead to double-digits. From there, the Lady Titans never looked back, holding Brewton Parker to just seven points in the fourth quarter.

Head coach Kenneth Williams said the key to the fourth-quarter performance came on the defensive side of the ball.

“Number 20 was their main player and that was the biggest adjustment we made was not letting her catch the ball,” he said. “We made her real uncomfortable in the fourth quarter and that’s what helped us [extend the lead].”

The Lady Titans, who iare comprised of 11 freshmen, still showed signs of being young as they missed several layups down the stretch that would’ve put the game that much more out of reach.

As a team, they shot just 36.8 percent in the second half and 34.2 percent in the game. Williams said the missed layups as well as shooting too early is something they’ll have to address and grow out of sooner rather than later.

Davis led the team in scoring with 18 points, followed by Alicia Gertman with 15 and Shanarica Parks with 10. Albany Tech had three players pull down 10-plus rebounds, including Gertman who recorded a double-double with 15 points and 12 rebounds. Ashley O’Neal had a game-high 14 rebounds, while Newkirk had 11.

Albany 84, Brewton Parker 76

The Titans closed homecoming night by getting their first win of the season.

Albany Tech (1-2) took an early 4-0 lead before Sam Ralston and the Barons were able to knock down a string of jumps to make it a 13-7 game. Brewton Parker pushed the lead to double digits thanks in large part to five 3-pointers, but the Titans fought their way back and cut it seven with 2:43 left in the half.

A pair of free throws from Darontay McCoy tied the game at 33 with 1:42 left, then a bucket from Artavius Hicks gave the Titans a 35-33 for a few seconds. Albany Tech outrebounded Brewton 24-14 in the first half while shooting 52.2 percent. They would go into the halftime break up 39-36.

Head coach Sylvester Patterson said he told his team at the half they’d have to tighten up on defense.

“We had to start switching out everything.” Patterson said. “They were running a five out motion and shooting threes. They shot 17 threes in the first half and they hit five and hit a couple in a row and we went down because we just weren’t executing.”

Second half started with a 5-0 mini-run by the Titans to give them some breathing room and then with about three minutes left, Montkevious Fluellen got a defensive rebound, weaved-in between defenders and took it coast-to-coast to make it an 80-67 game. The Titans would coast from there.

Montrell Sisroe led all scorers with 19 points, followed by Ladarius Kelly and Hicks with 14 and Deon Johnson and McCoy with 10.