Warriors fall short on homecoming

Published 11:35 pm Friday, January 24, 2020

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By KEVIN ECKLEBERRY

Daily News

The LaGrange Academy Warriors overcame a slow start to make a game of it, but the night belonged to St. George’s, which came away with a 48-38 victory on Friday night.

The Warriors were down 9-0 less than four minutes into the game, and they trailed 13-4 after the first quarter.

The Warriors picked up the pace offensively in the second quarter,  but they were still trailing 27-16 at the halftime break.

St. George’s maintained a double-digit lead throughout the third quarter, and LaGrange Academy was down 39-25 as the final quarter began.

The Warriors scored the first five points of the fourth quarter to get within nine, and when Andrew Knight made two free throws with 4:45 to play, St. George’s lead was down to seven.

LaGrange Academy was unable to get any closer than that, though, and St. George’s pulled away for the road win.

Terrence Broaden led the Warriors with 11 points while making two 3-pointers, and Elijah Godfrey added 10 points.

In the girls’ game, the Lady Warriors got the job done defensively, but they struggled offensively on the way to a 27-20 loss.

The Lady Warriors didn’t score at all in the opening quarter, and they didn’t put their first points on the scoreboard until Ivey Portis scored early in the second quarter.

LaGrange Academy led 9-8 with 3:28 left in the second quarter, but St. George’s finished the first half on an 8-0 run to take a 16-9 lead at the break.

The Lady Warriors kept it close in the second half, thanks to a stingy defense.

“I was happy with their defense again,” said LaGrange Academy coach Bethany Howard. “We kept them under 30. The defense overall looked good, and the press looked great.”

As for the offensive execution, Howard liked the looks the shooters were getting, “it just wasn’t going in.”