Darton dismantles Southern Crescent

ALBANY — Much like last year, the Darton Lady Cavaliers basketball team started their season with a bang. In their season opening home tournament, Darton defeated Summer Hill Prep on Saturday 109-28. They would follow that performance Sunday with a 90-47 win over Southern Crescent.

Head coach Lea Henry said she liked what she saw opening weekend.

“I think we’re gonna be a good team, we’re very deep,” she said. “We played with a lot of energy. I like our chemistry already. We’ve just got to keep getting better, getting tougher and getting better. This was a good two games for us. I was really pleased with them.”

Sunday’s game started with a 3-3 tie before the Lady Cavs got separation. Desiree Corbin’s putback capped off a 7-0 run to make it 10-3 nearly midway through the first. In the second quarter, the Lady Tigers got two freethrows from Aurelio Mangham to cut Darton’s lead to a single point with 7:48 left. From that point on, the Lady Cavs went on a 21-5 run to close the half and went into the locker room with a 41-24 lead at the break.

“We just started playing better defense,” Henry said about the run. “We got a lot of offense off of our defense. Our energy was little better. We just weren’t knocking down shots right there in that stretch and they were knocking down threes, so I think our kids got a little frustrated. We put a fresh group out there and picked up the energy and all of a sudden the whole tempo of the game changed.”

Hilary Williams would go coast-to-coast for a layup to start the second half, followed by a jumper by Abrelyn Rackley. The lead would continue to swell as Darton was able to keep fresh legs in the game throughout.

The Lady Cavs had five players score in double figures on the day. Abrelyn Rackley led the way with 19, followed by Tynicia McCoy with 16, Shantrell Holland with 14, Corbin with 13 and Tyeshia Smith with 11. Corbin also had the team’s lone double-double with 11 rebounds to complement her offensive output. Destiny Covert was also active on the glass, pulling down 11 rebounds.

Darton showed a few signs of early season rust as they shot just 37 percent in the first half and 40 percent in the game. Henry said she liked the shot selection, but said they need to finish. She added the team was without one of its better perimeter shooters — former Albany Tech Lady Titan Muneerah Drummond, who was out because of illness.

The Lady Cavs will be back in action at home at 6 p.m. Nov. 9 as they host Enterprise.