By Johnny Sanders, Sports Editor
CLAY – The Clay Chalkville Lady Cougars welcomed cross-town rivals Pinson Valley Indians to their gym on Tuesday night and won in every facet of the game in what Coach Kevin Connor would call “one of the most complete games we have played all year.”
The Pinson girls kept it pretty close in the first quarter, scoring 11 points against the Clay defense. Jada Griffin led the Indians with 6 points to go with Alisa Hawkins’ 3. The Cougar offense would find success scoring in the first quarter, putting up 17 with 6 of them coming from Kamoriah Gaines and another 4 coming from Cheyenne Pearson.
The Cougar defense would allow just 7 points from the Lady Indians with Griffin leading the scoring for Pinson with 4 points followed by Keke Riley’s 2 points. Offensively, Clay would hit their stride and score 23 on the Indians’ defense. Of the 23, Brooklyn Phillips would hit 3 three-pointers for 9 points in the quarter, paired with 7 from Kameron Sanders. The Cougars would have a commanding 40-18 lead heading into the half.
The third quarter would be much of the same as Clay outscored Pinson by 10 points and put more distance between the two teams, despite Pinson’s never quit attitude. Pinson would be led by Alisa Hawkins with 3 of the Indians’ 7 points in the period. Pearson would have another good quarter for the Cougars, scoring 6 of their 17 points leading to a 57-25 lead for her team heading into the final frame.
The Clay defense would continue to show out as they did not allow a single point from the Pinson girls in the fourth quarter. The Cougars would show some mercy on their rivals by only scoring 6 of their own in the period, making it a final of 63-25.
“It’s a rivalry game so our girls wanted to prove a point,” said Coach Connor. “I thought defensively we made it hard for them to score which allowed us to get our offense going and pull away in the second quarter.”
The Cougars improved to 17-6 overall and 2-1 in the area. They will travel to Mortimer Jordan Friday night to take on the Blue Devils.