Merry Acres and Radium Springs girls advance in conference tournament

ALBANY — The Merry Acres Lady Braves and the Radium Springs Lady Panthers advanced to the second round of the Deep South Conference playoffs with wins in first-round games at Westover High School Merry Acres beat Byron Middle School 27-11 and Radium Springs beat Albany Middle 38-21.

Merry Acres jumped out to an 11-0 lead in the first quarter against Byrin with a half-court zone press that gave the Lady Braves turnovers and quick points. In the second quarter, Byron put on a full-court press to try and get back in the game. They caused a lot of Merry Acres miscues, but could not put the ball into the basket themselves.

Merry Acres guard Janiyah Winslow went down with an ankle injury and the Lady Braves had trouble get around the Byrin press but since Merry Acres defense kept Byron from scoring, the Lady Braves pulled away for the win.

Savannah Donaldson led Merry Acres with eight points, Tykeria Harris put in six and Janiyah Brown added five.

The Radium Springs girls jumped out to a 10-0 lead over Albany and were never threatened in the day’s opening game. The Lady Panthers led 19-6 at the half and 30-12 after three.

Narai McDowell created numerous turnovers and scored on several fastbreaks to help the Lady Panthers win big. She scored 22 points for Radium Springs.

Round two of the tournament will be in Americus on Wednesday. Merry Acres will play second-seeded Crisp County Middle at 5 and Radium Springs will take on top-seeded Sumter County at 6:15.

Joe WhitfieldJoeWhitfield[email protected]