South Point girls, Ashbrook boys take Big South DH
BELMONT – As the high school basketball season approaches its final two weeks, the Big South 3A Conference race is tighter than ever.
Ashbrook’s boys and South Point’s girls took huge wins Friday in their doubleheader at the South Point gymnasium to help their positioning in the league standings.
After South Point’s rallied from behind to beat Ashbrook 46-42 in the girls opener, Ashbrook’s boys stayed hot in league play with a 57-48 victory.
The boys defeat continued South Point’s spiral downward – a fourth straight loss that dropped the Red Raiders to 11-5, 4-5.
“Every league game is huge so we’ve got to treat every game as big,” said Ashbrook coach Chad Duncan, whose team has won three straight conference games after back-to-back losses to city rivals Forestview and Hunter Huss. “This was a big win for us tonight.”
Ashbrook (14-5, 7-2), which defeated South Point 68-46 on its homecourt in December in the first meeting, fell behind quickly against the determined Red Raiders.
South Point led 14-4 after the opening quarter and was ahead 16-6 with 7 1-2 minutes left in the opening half. But after firing up five 3-pointers in its first six field goal attempts – all misses – Ashbrook started attacking the basket more and the Green Wave comeback was soon to follow.
By the end of the first half, Ashbrook was ahead 24-19. South Point managed to catch the Green Wave at 35, but Ashbrook held on down the stretch when it made seven of 12 field goals and four of six free throws in the final quarter.
“In the last two games, we’ve played two really good teams and we’ve shown flashes – a minute here, a minute there – but we can’t put it all together,” South Point coach Kody Kubbs said.
Grant Stafford led Ashbrook with 17 points, including nine in the fourth quarter. Delshon Leach added 12 points and Jayquan Mackey and Blake Payne 11 apiece for the Green Wave.
The Red Raiders were led by Taylor Williams’ 14 points and Trevor Bridges’ 10.
In the opener, South Point (10-6, 6-3) took sole possession of third place by turning the tables on Ashbrook (7-10, 5-4), which had won 46-39 in the first meeting in December.
“This was a big game for us,” said South Point coach Scott Tudor, whose team ended the game on a 12-3 surge. “The first game was very similar except that we led and they came back on us.”
Ashbrook led by as many as six points and were ahead 39-34 with 7 1-2 minutes to play before the Red Raiders’ closing push.
Ashley Mull had a game-high 21 points, including 15 on five first-half 3-pointers. Brittany Green added eight points and Sarah Lawing seven. Brittany Patterson’s 16 points led Ashbrook.
“It was a total team effort,” Tudor said of his team’s win. “We got some really key rebounds down the stretch from Sarah Lawing and Haley Stewart got some big steals for us.”
Stewart’s steal and driving layup with 10 seconds left capped the win for South Point.
Richard Walker: 704-869-1841; twitter.com/JRWalk22
