Demopolis unable to find form in Regional loss to Sylacauga
MONTGOMERY – Demopolis struggled to get anything going offensively Monday morning as Sylacauga ran to a 63-27 victory in the opening round of the Class 5A girls Central Regional.
“We got down. We were shooting the ball and nothing was falling in the first half. And they did a great job of attacking us. Their defensive scheme was pretty doggone good. They knew what we wanted to do and they took that away from us,” Demopolis coach Tony Pittman said.
Demopolis took a timeout down 6-0 with 4:44 remaining in the opening quarter as Pittman looked to slow the Aggie momentum and turn the tide for his team. The effort was to no avail and Kayla and Tierra Dark went on a scoring barrage for the remainder of the period to open the advantage to 14-0 before Demopolis got on the board.
“We expect to start fast. We came out and we executed our game plan the way we wanted to execute,” Sylacauga coach Derrick Crawford said. “Our kids locked down on defense. We wanted to dominate the boards and I think we did that. We wanted to get up and down the floor, which we did. That was the key. We out-rebounded them today 48-27 and that was one of our points of emphasis was rebounding well. We told them you’ve got to rebound well and you’ve got to make the high-percentage shots that you do have. Our kids, they were able to do that today.”
Sylvia Clayton drained a three-pointer with 33 seconds remaining in the frame to announce the Tigers’ presence in the game. Undaunted, Kayla Dark answered 20 seconds later with a triple of her own to put Sylacauga up 17-3 after one quarter of play.
“It’s a big difference,” Pittman said of the sight lines in the Dunn-Oliver Acadome where the Tigers went 1-for-20 from the floor in the opening quarter. “You play 20-plus games throughout the year and you’ve got that wall behind you. You get here to the big Acadome and everything is just wide open. That’s something we talked about the last three or four days in practice: make sure you don’t change your shot. I think the depth perception messed with us. You have to give credit where credit is due. They’re a better basketball team today. They did what they were supposed to do in order to win the ball game.”
Demopolis played its way back into the ball game in the second quarter as free throw struggles by the Aggies opened the door. Samantha Williams turned a Clayton pass into a shot off the glass with 3:35 left before half to cut it to 24-12. With 1:29 until intermission, Shacorie Cockrell translated a Clayton dime into a three-pointer to make it 24-15. Demopolis would get no closer.
“If you watch this team throughout the year, whether we’re up or down, they’re not going to quit. We always had it in mind that we could get it done,” Pittman said.
The Tigers continued to scuffle on offense in the third quarter with Clayton’s jumper at the 3:48 mark standing as the only Demopolis scoring from the floor in what amounted to a three-point quarter.
“Making sure they didn’t get garbage points. We knew they were going to shoot a high volume of three-pointers. We were able to identify the three-point shooters,” Crawford said of his team’s defensive focus entering the contest. “That was my only concern was to make sure they didn’t get garbage points from those high volume shots that they missed.”
The 43-19 deficit through the game’s first three quarters appeared to be at its worst when Williams and Aniya Johnson tallied four points in a matter of nine seconds to get the hole back to 20 points. But Bryanna Browning along with Kayla and Tierra Dark went on a tear over the next two minutes to open the advantage up to 28.
The Tigers shot an abysmal 16.7 percent from the floor in the contest including five percent in the first quarter and 7,7 percent in the third. Additionally, the Aggies out-rebounded Demopolis 48-27.
The victory moves Sylacauga to 24-5 and advances the Aggies to Wednesday’s Central Regional final against the winner of Central-Tuscaloosa and Shelby County.
“The thing is, we’ve been here before where I lost one of the two (of Kayla and Tierra Dark) to knee injuries whereas both of them started for me in the backcourt three years ago when we played for the state championship,” Crawford said. “We’ve had some unfortunate injuries the last two years on our team.”
Clayton led Demopolis with nine points while Aniya Johnson had seven. For Clayton, the return to the Central Regional proved bittersweet after she missed last season’s playoff run with a knee injury.
“It meant a lot to come back and be able to do what I love to do,” an emotional Clayton said following the game.
Kayla Dark finished with 23 for Sylacauga. Tierra Dark had 15 and Bryanna Browning scored 13 to go along with 12 rebounds. Briasia Richardson snagged a game high 13 rebounds.
The loss caps the Demopolis season at 17-7 and marks the final game in the Tiger careers of Clayton, Williams and Darnesha Harris.
“Kudos to those three seniors. I know Sylvia will have an opportunity to play at the next level,” Pittman said. “Samantha and Darnesha will have opportunities for whatever they want to do. They’re great kids.”
That senior trio drew the task of leading a young team this season that included seven freshmen.
“High potential. They love the game,” Clayton said of her young teammates’ prospects for success moving forward.