Season ends for Bulldog girls

TROY — One stat stood out among the rest in LaFayette’s girls South Region tournament showdown with Clarke County — 16-of-56 (28.6 percent).

That was LaFayette’s field-goal percentage for the game. And that helped Clarke County run away with a 58-37 victory in the South Region tournament at Troy University on Thursday.

“I’m real proud of our girls and we’ve come through a lot this year with injuries and some internal things,” first-year LaFayette head coach Kenneth Keith said. “We lose just one senior this year so I think we’ll be a lot better next year.”

LaFayette started out hot, though, outscoring Clarke County, 6-2, to open the game.

But Clarke County proceeded to hit a 13-0 run over the final 5:11 of the first period, and the Bulldogs never looked back.

“Our shooting problem today was very unusual for us,” Keith said. “We’ve been shooting for 45 minutes a day before practice.

“But I guess the new environment, big crowd and jitters got to us because we missed a lot of shots we normally make.”

Senior guard Erica Moore was a big reason Clarke County was able to pull away from LaFayette. She finished with a game-high 25 points and 11 rebounds, 18 of her points coming in the second half.

“That No. 23 (Moore) is something to deal with,” Keith said.

After Clarke County opened the game with a score, Mercedes Rutledge and Erica Williams had consecutive buckets and Rutledge added another for the 6-2 LaFayette lead.

But Ebony Hughes got Clarke County rolling with a 3-point play and gave the Bulldogs a lead with another bucket just more than a minute later.

Kiara Gildersleeve then helped push the lead even further with two 3-pointers, both banked off the backboard, to give the Bulldogs a 15-6 lead at the end of the first period.

From there, Clarke County outscored LaFayette, 11-4, in the second quarter and really began pulling away in the fourth behind three 3-point plays.

Along with Moore’s big day, Hughes finished with 13 points for Clarke County.

LaFayette (14-12) was led by 17 points from Williams and 8 more from Rutledge.

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