By T. Scott Boatright
A strong start and even stronger finish paid off for the Lady Aggies Saturday night as Choudrant took the District 2-B title with a 59-30 win over Family Community Christian School in the district tournament inside the CHS Gym.
The Lady Aggies stormed out of the gates to start the contest, opening with a 15-3 run in the first 4:29 of the first quarter behind the play of top scorer Reese Brown, who totaled eight points over that stretch and finished with 15 points.
But the Warriors refused to make it easy, but the Warriors refused to go down a fight, cutting Choudrant’s lead to 18-10 by the end of the opening stanza and pulling within four points at 24-20 with 2:44 before the Aggies headed into the locker room at the half with a 26-20 advantage.
“I thought we had a great first quarter and did good in spurts in the second quarter,” said Lady Aggies coach Brandy Roberson. “But we got a little sloppy on defense. But in the second half we came and executed and did what I knew we could do.
“The thing is, I just want us to play more consistently and that’s what I told the team. We can’t have a great first quarter and then come out in the second quarter and do the minimum. Obviously we got the job done but I was hoping for more consistency.”
And the Warriors cut Choudrant’s lead to three at 26-23 only two minutes into the second half when Rory Norwood swished a 3-pointer through the nets.
But the Lady Aggies countered with a 14-5 run from there to build a 40-28 advantage heading into the final stanza and then pulled away for good early in the fourth quarter with an 8-0 run.
Brown began that run with a short jumper 32 seconds into the stanza before Sadie Brown scored six straight on a layup, a shot from under the basket and a putback that put the Lady Aggies on top 48-28 with 6:28 remaining.
“She has really come alive this year and has really come alive in district,” Lady Aggies coach Brandy Roberson said about Brown, who led Choudrant with 18 points. “She’s been playing phenomenal. She and Reese have been neck-and-neck in scoring this year. When you have two that can score double digits and then you have Kat (Hernandez), who isn’t quite as consistent but can give me nine or 10 points on most nights, that’s a pretty good 1-2 punch with some added help that is a big benefit for us for sure. But Sadie is really playing well right now.”
Brown took it inside often on the night and was joined in the post by Choudrant sophomore Hannah Bryan, who totaled 12 points on the night.
“She had a great game tonight,” Roberson said. “She’s very young but is starting to figure out she’s really athletic and is starting to figure it out and execute.
“We knew how good (the Lady Warriors’) posts were — they’re big. So we decided to take it to them and get them in foul trouble, and that’s exactly what we did.”
The Lady Aggies will close out regular season play on Tuesday at Quitman.
