Tierra goes on a tear, BJ girls move on to Northwest Regional
In an elimination game and with a trip to the Northwest Regional at Wallace State-Hanceville on the line, the Bob Jones girls left nothing to chance. Thursday night, the top-ranked 6A girl’s team in the state of Alabama rolled over Huntsville in a sub-regional game 61-29.
Bob Jones senior Tierra Jones challenged herself to play better after scoring only 2 and 5 points in the 2 previous playoff games. She responded by scoring the first 11 points for the Lady Patriots in the first quarter. Huntsville finally scored to make it Bob Jones 11-2.
As is so often the case, Jones came up with a big defensive play to spark the offense. Drawing a charging foul on Huntsville’s second possession set the tone. After an offensive rebound Jones scored and was fouled to make it 8-0. A minute later Jones completed a 3-point play.
A Chandler Elder basket and a China Leary 3-point basket closed the first quarter with a 16-4 Patriots lead.
Not to be outdone the other Lady Patriots got in on the action in the second quarter which started with a Joidan Jennings steal and score. China Leary then nailed her second 3 point basket to make it 21-4. After a technical foul on Huntsville head coach Gerald Franks it was 23-4. The bench players contributed starting with two 3-point baskets by Meredith Lovelady to make it 29-6.
Tierra Jones added 4 points and an assist to China Leary to close a near perfect first half with a 39-10 lead. Jones had 15 points at the half.
“I was focused,” Jones said after the game. “I knew I needed to pick up my play because I haven’t been playing as well as I know I could the last few games. The opportunities arose and I was just able to hit the first few shots.”
The shots kept falling in the third quarter as Bob Jones built the lead to 50-20 after Katie Colson took a feed from Lindsey Jennings and dropped home a shot under the basket. Even with liberal substitutions by Coach Tim Miller the lead continued to grow to as high as 61-24 and there were still starters in the game for Bob Jones early in the fourth quarter.
Tierra Jones finished with her highest point total of the season, 19 points. China Leary finished with 8 points, Lindsey Jennings had 7, Meredith Lovelady scored 6, and Jasmine Jones finished with 4.
“When you got other players on the court that can score, Tierra is going to have chances to score because you’ve got other great players on the floor,” Miller said. “That goes for all our players. It could be China or Joidan or Jasmine. We got so many ways to score its hard to defend us.”
Miller said that his team is taking a lesson from the upset of the Bob Jones boys and not leaving anything to chance in their quest for a second straight state championship.
“We had some of the players from the boy’s team come to our practice and they talked about how they had one bad game and it cost them their season. And our players are determined that won’t happen to them,” Miller said.
“We just plan for whatever team we play next. One game at a time and we just go from there,” Miller said
Just who will be that next team against the Patriots in the next game is still to be determined. What is known is that the game will be at noon Tuesday, Feb. 21 at Wallace State-Hanceville in the AHSAA Northwest Regional. If the Lady Patriots win that game they would play again the next Friday.
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