Loachapoka boys, Smiths Station girls win Lee County Tournament

BEULAH — For the next year Loachapoka’s boys and Smiths Station’s girls can claim themselves the best teams in Lee County.

Both captured the tournament title in convincing fashion Friday night in the finals of the Lee County Basketball Tournament in Beulah.

In an all Smiths Station/Loachapoka finals night, Smiths Station’s girls won, 58-31, over the Indians. In the nightcap, Loachapoka won, 58-40, over the Panthers.

Boys
Loachapoka head coach Terry Murph said it was about as close to a complete game as he could’ve hoped for.

The Class 1A Indians stormed out of the gate against Class 6A Smiths Station and never looked back en route to the lopsided victory.

“Tonight was just solid and big for confidence,” Murph said. “Just believing they can win over a 6A school like Smiths Station is good for the confidence heading into area play next week.

“It was almost a complete game tonight, so I’m proud of them for that.”

The domination over Smiths Station started quick as the Indians built a big lead in the first quarter thanks to a 12-0 run in the final 3:48 of the period.

Jontavius Willis sparked the burst with a 3-pointer and added another 3 later in the run to make it a 16-6 game. All totalled Willis put in 8 points of the 12 unanswered.

From there it was all about defense as Loachapoka only allowed the Panthers consecutive scores on two occasions.

In the meantime, with a steady dose of Tommy White Jr. in the paint, the Indians built the lead to 16 points in the third and never allowed Smiths Station to threaten.

White finished with a game-high 22 points to lead the Indians. Patrick Moore added 11 points and Willis finished with 10.

Rodrick Austin paced the Panthers with 19 points, but was the only Smiths Station player to crack double digits.

Girls
There was little doubt how the girls final would turn out by witnessing the first seven minutes.

The Panthers scored the game’s first 9 points, led, 13-2, seven minutes in and eventually built a 16-point lead four minutes into the second period.

Smiths Station also put a big run together to ice things in the third when the Indians made their one solid threat at the lead.

“It’s big for us and gave us a chance to work on some things and improve,” Smiths Station head coach Shana Johnson said. “We have a big game with Russell County (today), so hopefully this tournament will help.”

The Panthers built their big lead and held a 23-7 advantage with 3:59 to play.

That’s when the Indians put up a threat, outscoring Smiths Station, 7-2, to cut the lead to 11 and then cutting it down to just 7 points early in the third.

But the Panthers (17-3) regained the momentum and pulled away by outscoring the Indians, 16-2 over the final 3:37 of the third.

“It was kind of on-and-off for us, but they did it when they had to with that big run at the end of the third,” Johnson said. “Overall, I was fairly pleased with how things went the past few nights.”

Five Panthers scored in double figures, led by 12 points from Dejah Heard. Breana Shephard added 11 points, while Vannessa Peterson, Erika Jones and Roslyn Thomas each finished with 10.

Loachapoka was led by Chantal Hall’s 16 points. Shanequa Dowdell added 8.

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