PREP HOOPS: Beauregard sweeps past Notasulga

With its football team going to the playoffs, Beauregard’s boys basketball team only had six practices to get ready for its season opener.

Add to that transferring in a new starter — Will Walker from Auburn High — and you get a 14-point first half like the one the Hornets suffered through in their home opener Thursday night.

“It was just the kids getting used to playing with each other,” Beauregard coach Matt Shoemaker said. “It’s just been a rush to get everything in, and the kids aren’t familiar with it.”

The Hornets clicked in the second half, putting up 43 points, erasing a 5-point halftime deficit and pulling away from the Blue Devils, 57-47.

“I really expected that the first half,” Shoemaker said of the team’s second-half explosion. “We have a bunch of good athletes and they showed what they can do when they play together.”

Walker and Rodney Thomas, who combined for 10 points in the first half, each found their touch in the second.

Walker, a 6-foot-8 senior, scored 9 points in the third quarter and finished with 17, while Thomas, who provided the impetus for a 13-0 Hornets run in the fourth quarter to put the game away, scored a team-high 18.

Walker also added six rebounds, four steals, two blocks, and two rim-rocking dunks that each brought an “oosh” from the crowd.

Even the one he flushed home after the final buzzer sounded got the same reaction.

“He’s going to give us an inside presence, but he can also shoot the ball from outside, too,” Shoemaker said of Walker. “It’s just nice to have a 6-8 rebounder. Last year our tallest player was 6-2.”

Patrick Lockhart added 10 points and seven rebounds for Beauregard.

Frederick McKenzie scored a game-high 25 for Notasulga — including four 3-pointers — and pulled down six rebounds, while Kenneth Tolbert added 8.

In the girls game, there was just way too much Bellamy for the Blue Devils to overcome in a 69-42 Beauregard victory.

Junior Valeeta Bellamy in the post and her twin, Laveeta, on the perimeter combined for 38 of the Hornets’ points.

Valeeta, an honorable mention All-State honoree last year, continued her habit of flirting with triple-doubles, scoring 22 points, pulling down eight rebounds and also notching seven steals.

Laveeta scored 16 points to go along with four steals.

Beauregard led, 18-3, at the end of the first quarter and put it on cruise control after going up, 60-29, at the end of three.

Ariel Mitchell added 13 points for the Hornets, and Paris Oglesby recorded a double-double, notching 11 points and 14 rebounds.

Kimesha Jackson countered with a double-double for the Blue Devils — 16 points and 10 rebounds — Brittany Cobb scored 7, and Rachel Foster had 6 points to go along with 10 rebounds.

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