By Ed Bailey

The Alexander City Outlook

 

DADEVILLE — Behind a 44-26 second-half scoring advantage, the Dadeville Lady Tigers punched their ticket to Montgomery at the expense of Dallas County, dropping them 69-40 in sub-regional action.

Rae Williams led all scorers with 20 points, Destiny Green scored 14 points, and Janeisha Moss had 12 points, 10 of them coming in the first half.

For the Lady Hornets, Tieara Chandler was the high scorer with 17, while De’Undria Boggs added 12.

Lady Hornets head coach Charles Thompson said Dadeville was able to capitalize off of Dallas County’s mistakes.

“I feel like in certain aspects of the game, we played decently. What it boils down to is that they wanted it way more than we did, man. They capitalized on our turnovers,” Thompson said. “When we would make shots, but when we’d come back down on defense, we’d gamble and give up easy baskets or fouls. I’m proud of our girls for what they’ve done all year but I have to congratulate Dadeville on the win. We’ve just got to get back in the gym and let our tears turn to work.”

The game was all Dadeville from the opening tip, as they went on a 9-2 run to close the first quarter up 13-4.

The Lady Hornets showed some life in the second quarter thanks to Chandler finding her three-point stroke, but Dadeville maintained control as Moss was able to penetrate at will, which led to lay-ins or dump-off passes to Williams and Green.

“When she’s penetrating like that, Moss is a killer,” Dadeville girls basketball coach Mitch Joiner said. “Usually when she has 10 of anything, it’s assists.”

Down 28-14 at the half, Dallas County came out of the locker room with a 5-0 run, but Dadeville, led by Williams, shut down the Lady Hornets’ chances at a comeback with repeated attacks of the DCHS interior defense.

After closing the quarter with an 11-3 run, Dadeville was up 50-27, and Dallas County did not score again until 4:00 left in the fourth.

“We wanted to get back inside in the second half,” Joiner said. “We didn’t have a bad quarter. The only thing that worried me was our press. Our best weapon is the press and Dallas County beat it pretty easily. We’re going to face better ball-handlers in Montgomery than we did against Dallas County. Other than that, we played flawlessly.”