Monroe boys basketball stays on a roll, defeats Dougherty

ALBANY — The No. 2-ranked Monroe Golden Tornadoes boys basketball team won its 16th consecutive game Friday night, beating crosstown rival Dougherty 70-49.

The win is also Monroe’s 16th straight region win over the last two seasons. They Golden Tornadoes (21-2) were 8-0 last year in the region and they are 8-0 in the region again this season after Friday night’s win. They will host the boys region tournament at Monroe next week.

Friday night’s game was a tale of two halves. The first half was an intense battle with both teams racing up and down the court with break-neck speed and though Monroe jumped out to an early 11-2 lead, the two teams went into halftime with the score tied 35-35.

The second half started with a 3-pointer from Dougherty’s Jaion Burns, but that was almost all Dougherty could do in the third quarter, along with one basket by Elijah West and a couple of free throws from Kaleke Jinks.

Each trip down the floor, the Tornadoes worked to get the ball in close for easy baskets and when Jaquan Maddox scored midway through the third the Tornadoes had grabbed a 10-point lead, 50-40. The combination of Monroe’s defense and Dougherty errors led the Tornadoes to outscore the Trojans 20-7 in the third quarter and 14-7 in the fourth quarter.

“We just got outplayed,” said Dougherty head coach Bakari Bryant. “We got outplayed in every facet of the game and I mean all of them.”

Monroe was led by Andrico Jackson, who scored 20 points, including four 3-pointers. Boss Diallo scored 12, Justin Burns added 11 points and Domonik Henderson followed with eight points.

Elijah West led the Trojans with 18 points, Chris Lamar followed with eight points and Jinks added seven points.

Dougherty (11-10) finishes the regular season as the No. 3 team in the region and will host Thomas County Central Tuesday night in Albany. If the Trojans can beat Thomas County Central for the third time this season they will likely face Westover in the semifinal round of the region tournament. The other play-in game Tuesday will be in Bainbridge where the Bearcats will host Cairo.

Joe Whitfield