By Kevin Eckleberry

kevin.eckleberry@lagrangenews.com

It was a mismatch.

LaGrange and Sandy Creek headed into Friday’s game as the only two remaining unbeaten girls’ teams in Region 5-AAAA, setting the stage for what figured to be a hard-fought showdown for first place.

Instead, it was LaGrange taking charge from the get-go on the way to a 60-36 victory.

LaGrange is now alone in first place in the region at 5-0, while Sandy Creek fell to 3-1.

“I was confident that we could win, but I definitely didn’t think it would be like that,” LaGrange head coach Stephen Tuck said.

It was fairly close early, with LaGrange leading 12-6 after the first quarter, but it dominated the second period to take a 34-12 lead at the half.

Sandy Creek didn’t come any closer than 19 points in the second half.

Aryan Dozier led LaGrange with 17 points, and Katelyn Hill made four 3-pointers and scored 12 points.

Madison Coverson added eight points, and she was 4-of-4 on free-throw attempts in the third quarter.

Hill helped ignite LaGrange in the first half, making two 3-pointers in each of the first two quarters.

“It was one of those things where I thought we were playing great defense in the first half, we just weren’t finishing,” Tuck said. “I looked at Katelyn and said we need offense, and she hit four threes. I’m happy for her, because she’s been working hard in practice. It’s good to see that.”

LaGrange will look to finish the first half of its region schedule with a road win today over Chapel Hill.

“We don’t want a let-down,” Tuck said. “You don’t want to be too happy with this win and overlook Chapel Hill.”