By Johnny Sanders, Sports Editor
MOODY – The Moody Blue Devils and Leeds Greenwave met for the first time of the season on Friday night in the basketball edition of their rivalry, aptly named the “Battle of the Bridge.” The Lady Blue Devils won in dominating fashion over the Lady Greenwave, but the Leeds boys picked up the win over Moody’s boys in the night cap.
Moody’s girls improved to an impressive 16-2 with the 65-20 win over Leeds on Friday night. The Lady Blue Devils jumped out early, winning the first quarter 21-5 to start things off. Moody’s Serenity Rutledge and Kendall Stephens each scored six to lead Moody in the quarter, closely followed by Tarryn Woodall’s five points. Gianna Davis had three to lead the Greenwave.
The second quarter was much the same as Moody closed out the 43-point half with 22 points in the second, led by Tori Pyles who had three three-pointers in the period to lead Moody with nine points and Rutledge added eight points as well. Katelyn Howard led the Greenwave with two points in the quarter.
Leeds would come out of the locker room and play pretty good defense, holding Moody to just 13 points in the quarter. The Greenwave would score 7 led by Davis’ three-pointer. For the Blue Devils, Emma Kile led with five points.
Moody would score nine points in the final frame to end things with 65 points total with Leeds scoring four to close things out.
Leading scorer for Leeds was Gianna Davis with 10 points. Moody was led by Serenity Rutledge with 16 and Tori Pyles and Kendall Stephens each had 11.
Leeds coach Brian Gulock was proud of his team despite the tough loss. “I was proud of our girls. We had two great days of preparation and game planning. I thought we executed the plan very well. We have been having trouble scoring but when there are three eighth graders out there, it is hard. We got bit by the injury bug a little bit but these young girls are playing hard. We played good and I am proud of them. They carried themselves with class and they do things the right way and it will pay off one day.”
Becca Davis, Moody’s head coach, said the following of her team. “I still think we have a lot of things we need to clean up and do better on. After taking one on the chin like we did the other night, it is good to come out and have some fun and find yourself again.”
Moody improves to 16-2 heading into a revenge game against region rivals Springville, one of only two teams to beat the Blue Devils this year. Leeds falls to 3-14 ahead of a trip to Saint Clair Count.
The Moody boys team had no such luck against Leeds on Friday, losing a hard-fought 58-50 game that saw the Blue Devils keep fighting, but the Greenwave were just too much.
The first quarter was quite a battle with Leeds edging out the Blue Devils 14-12. Sidney Walton led Moody with 7 points in the period while Jaelyn Felder and Chris Burge both had five to lead the Greenwave.
Leeds used an 18-8 second quarter to take a 32-20 lead into the half as the turnover bug bit Moody and Leeds capitalized. The Greenwave spread the scoring out pretty well in the second, with six different Greenies putting up points. Tabari Davis and Ronald Miller led the way with four points each. Moody’s Briquon Lambert led the Blue Devils with three points in the period.
Moody jumped back into things and outscored Leeds 12-8 in the third, closing the gap to just 8 at 40-32 with Leeds out front. Davis, Burge, Miller, and Gavin Bowlin all contributed two points each for the Greenwave while Lambert led the way for Moody with four of his own.
The final quarter was a fight with both teams scoring 18 points. Leeds was led by Davis, who had seven points in the period with Burge following with six of his own. Moody’s Jaylen Retta hit two three-pointers to lead the Blue Devils while Walton and Boaz Thornton added five each. Leeds won by a final of 58-50.
“It was just a good high school basketball game,” said Jeremiah Millington, Leeds’ head coach. “Both teams played really hard and clean. Credit to Moody, they hit some shots. I knew four and 24 were going to be a challenge for us and they were and then 10 and 25 did a good job of pulling up and shooting. I was proud of our kids. They were resilient. We got down and didn’t panic. Getting that lead going into halftime was huge for us. We did a good job of not panicking at the end when it got close and settling down. It was just a good game overall. Both sides played a good game.”
Moody coach Chad Bates said, “They played really hard. Played better than they have been playing. Having to make some roster turnover and get guys to figure out new spots and stepping up, we just have to take care of the ball. When we took care of the ball we got some good shots. They played really good defense and we knew that was going to happen going into it, but we just didn’t handle it for four quarters.”
The Greenwave evened their record at 9-9 with the win as they head into another area road game on Tuesday night at Saint Clair County. Moody falls to 5-12 and they will head to Springville Tuesday night to take on the Tigers, who have won seven of their last eight.