Winning night for LaGrange
Published 11:37 pm Wednesday, November 15, 2017
By Kevin Eckleberry
kevin.eckleberry@lagrangenews.com
FRANKLIN – It was anybody’s game.
With less than four minutes remaining in Wednesday’s preseason game in Franklin, the LaGrange Lady Grangers were clinging to a four-point lead over Heard County.
Thanks to a dominant closing stretch, though, it ended up being a suspense-free victory for LaGrange.
The Lady Grangers went on a 5-0 run to take a nine-point lead, and they won 43-37.
Also on Wednesday, LaGrange’s boys’ team rolled to a 75-26 victory over Heard County.
Both LaGrange teams will open the regular season on Nov. 21 at Newnan.
In Wednesday’s girls’ game, Blair Herrod jump-started the late run with her second 3-pointer of the fourth quarter to give LaGrange a 37-30 lead with 3:23 remaining.
Herrod added two free throws with 2:33 to play and LaGrange led 39-30.
The Lady Grangers led by at least six points the rest of the way.
LaGrange’s most productive offensive quarter was the final one, and head coach Stephen Tuck said the players did a terrific job of running the offense.
“It was like a light bulb started to go off for some of them,” Tuck said. “If we work the ball, these are the types of shots we’re going to get. Everybody started to see that, and everybody started knocking down shots. It was just contagious.”
Aryan Dozier, LaGrange’s outstanding senior guard, led the way with 19 points, and Blair Herrod added 11 points
Herrod, who made three 3-pointers, scored nine of her points in the fourth quarter.
“I think she’s going to be big for us,” Tuck said. “We’ve been telling her all the time that if the shots there for here, she’s got to take it.”
In the boys’ game, LaGrange put it away early.
With Daz Williams getting off to a quick start with seven of his team’s first nine points, LaGrange surged to an 11-0 lead.
By the time the first quarter came to a close, LaGrange led 25-8.
The story was much the same the rest of the way.
The Grangers were up 42-15 at the half, and they led 64-21 through three quarters.
Covan Huzzie led the Grangers with 16 points, and Williams scored 11 points.
Jay Benton added nine points, Vondez Taylor scored nine points, and Bo Russell contributed seven points.
“Our team played hard tonight,” LaGrange head coach Mark Veal said. “They played very unselfishly. We shot decently, and I think we’ll shoot better going forward. But it was nice to see some of our returning guys kind of get back in the flow, and then we had some guys that are new to varsity basketball, and it’s good for them to get in there and get a taste of it and work their way through some things, and they’ll just keep getting better.”
