By By Rocky Higginbotham/Special to The Star
Dec. 12, 2001
DEKALB It's not exactly rare for a victorious coach to be disappointed.
But it's not every day a coach isn't happy with a 16-point win.
Still, Kemper is forcing turnovers. And the Lady Rams are winning. KA's girls, who edged Winston Academy Monday night, have now won nine straight contests and are 11-3 on the season.
Newton County Academy's boys earned a split in the MPSA District 3-A twinbill Tuesday night, beating the host Rams 70-50.
Kemper 54
NCA girls 38
The Lady Rams started the game with an 8-0 run and never trailed. But they didn't put away the Lady Generals until late in the third quarter.
NCA, which got a game-high 24 points from Casey McMahn, stayed with Kemper for the better part of three quarters and even out-rebounded the Lady Rams, 38-32. But Kemper forced Newton into 38 turnovers and held the Lady Generals without a single point for more than six minutes in the second half.
After the initial 8-0 spurt by KA, McMahn scored seven points in the first quarter to keep the Lady Generals within 18-9. Then a pair of 3-pointers from McMahn sparked a 10-2 spurt that pulled Newton within 22-19 midway through the second quarter.
Kemper answered with a pair of long-range bombs of its own from senior guard Jessica Harpole, and it was Harpole's steal and layup that sent the Lady Rams into the locker room with a 32-22 lead.
Newton County Academy got no closer than eight points the rest of the way. In fact, the Lady Generals went scoreless over the final 3:56 of the third quarter, when Kemper scored 10 straight points to build its lead to 48-28 heading into the fourth period.
Eve Darnell threatened a unique triple-double with 14 points, nine assists and eight steals for Kemper, while Harpole finished with 14 points and four steals. Blair Johnson scored 12 points and had eight rebounds, while Megan Whitaker and Kayla Mosley both had four steals, as well.
McMahn added five assists and four steals to go with her 24 points, while Andi Chesney scored 10 points and had game-highs of 17 rebounds and four blocked shots for the Lady Generals.
NCA boys 70
Kemper 50
The Generals used a balanced scoring attack and a big edge on the glass to knock off the host Rams.
Early, NCA rode five 3-pointers three of them by David White to build a 20-12 lead. But ultimately, it was a 17-5 edge in rebounding that helped the Generals build a 36-21 lead at halftime.
Junior forward Wil Bean scored nine points for NCA in the third period as the Generals pushed their lead to as many as 24. And while Kemper cut its deficit to 13 on one occasion in the final period, the Rams never got any closer.
Bean finished with 16 points to lead the Generals, while White scored 15 points, Jonathan Moore had 15 points and five assists and Bud Loper chipped in five points.
John Warren scored a game-high 20 points to lead Kemper Academy.
, which got 18 points, six rebounds and four steals from Adam Davis.