Knights sweep Tigers

By By Rocky Higginbotham/Special to the Star
Jan. 9, 2002
Southeast Lauderdale girls' coach Joe Miller joked that a cross-county matchup with West Lauderdale was the beginning of January's "Terrible Tuesdays" for his Lady Tigers a stretch that includes division games at West, at Choctaw Central, against Heidelberg and at Newton County.
The homestanding Lady Knights certainly did their part to make Tuesday miserable for Southeast.
West put together a 23-2 run during a span of 9:27 in the second and third quarters, and the Lady Knights rolled to a 72-49 win over the Lady Tigers in a Division 5-3A matchup.
The host Knights made it a clean sweep in the boys game, winning 85-49 over Southeast.
West Lauderdale returns to action Friday with another division matchup at Philadelphia, while Southeast will compete Thursday through Saturday in the Sam Dale Tournament at Kemper County.
West girls 72
Southeast 49
In the opening five minutes, Southeast used a trio of 3-pointers and a small edge on the boards to build a seven-point lead. But it was all downhill from there for the Lady Tigers especially in the paint.
West closed to within 19-16 at the end of the first period, and the rest of the game belonged to the Lady Knights.
It didn't last long, however, as West wound up with a 52-36 edge on the glass getting 18 points from offensive putbacks.
Despite two more 3-pointers from Southeast's Sam Smith, West found itself tied with the Lady Tigers 27-27 midway through the second quarter. The Lady Knights scored the final seven points of the first half, then opened the second half with 11 unanswered points to blow it open.
It was a 51-32 game going into the final period, and Southeast never got any closer than 15 points in the fourth quarter.
West placed five players in double figures, led by Jawanda Huggins, who came off the bench for 16 points and 12 rebounds.
Kristina Gardner gave West 14 points, nine rebounds and five steals, while Shannon Lloyd had 10 points, 10 rebounds and four steals and J.J. Huggins had 10 points and six rebounds. Patty Monroe added 10 points and four assists, Cierra Jennings had eight points and four assists and Lloyd and Jennings both had two blocked shots.
Southeast, which fell to 17-4 overall and 3-3 in division play, got 17 points and five steals from Smith and 12 points from Ree Newell. Kenitta Cooley had nine points, 10 rebounds and two blocks, Lesley Ruffin had five points, six rebounds and seven assists and Ebony Moore had three steals.
West boys 85
Southeast 49
The Knights came out red-hot and remained unbeaten in division play with yet another solid effort from the junior tandem of Calvin Moore and Boo Ramsey.
Moore pumped in 25 of his game-high 29 points in the first half and Ramsey nailed four 3-pointers on his way to 26 points as Duran Clark's West Lauderdale squad improved to 16-5 overall and 5-0 in the division.
Ramsey nailed back-to-back 3s both of them off steals in a 10-second span that put West up 19-7 and forced Southeast coach Ryan Miller into his second timeout with 4:30 still left in the first quarter.
The Knights had 25 points at the midway point of the opening period and led 36-19 at the end of one quarter. It was a 52-31 game at halftime.
Andre Adams chipped in eight points for West Lauderdale, while Scott Grady scored seven.
Southeast, which fell to 4-16 overall and 0-6 in division play, got 11 points from Lapatrick Carlisle, nine points from Ben Reed and six points from B.B. Brassfield.