CLASS AA STATE TOURNAMENT: Pelham Lady Hornets stomp Manchester

PELHAM — The Pelham High School girls defense was too much for Manchester too handle Friday night.

The Lady Hornets’ swarming attack boosted them to a 56-17 victory over Manchester at Pelham High School in a rematch of last year’s state quarterfinal matchup that Pelham also won.

The Lady Hornets advance to the quarterfinals at Georgia College in Milledgeville next week where they will meet the winner of Friday night’s late game between Jeff Davis and Holy Innocents. Pelham would like nothing more than a rematch against Holy Innocents, who ended their season last year at Columbus State in the semifinals.

Pelham forced the Lady Blue Devils into numerous turnovers in the first quarter of their quarterfinal Georgia High School Association Class AA tournament matchup.

Early in the first, the Lady Hornets opened on a 10-1 run to open the game, forcing Manchester to call a timeout. The brief break did nothing to help Manchester’s tough night.

The Lady Blue Devils did not make their first field goal until 1:30 left in the first quarter.

It was one of two droughts in the first half that last five minutes or more.

“We played outstanding defense,” Pelham coach Antonia Tookes said. “If you play good defense, you get easy baskets.”

The Lady Hornets stifling defense continued in the second quarter.

Back-to-back steals midway through the quarter followed by baskets from Mahogany Randall and Herald Super 6er Quadranique Franklin gave Pelham a 25-6 advantage.

Pelham held Manchester scoreless for the final five minutes of the second quarter and took a 30-6 lead into the locker room.

The drubbing continued in the second half.

Manchester made just two buckets to push its point total to 10 points.

Pelham embarked on an 18-4 run when Herald Super 6er Destiny Thomas opened the half with a three. The Lady Hornets hit four treys in the third quarter alone.

“Our defense was really in the right spots tonight,” Tookes said. “We should have been taking the ball to the basket. That is what we should have been doing and stopped relying on the outside shots.”

Mahogany Brown did her part for the Lady Hornets, dropping three treys. She hit back-to-back threes to end the third quarter and give Pelham a 48-10 advantage. Brown finished the game with 15 points and led all scorers.

Manchester failed to score in the last four minutes of the third.

Pelham got everyone involved in the fourth quarter while giving the starters a chance to rest. The Lady Blue Devils were still outscored 8-6 in the quarter.

Franklin dropped 12 points for Pelham.