ROSWELL – Alpharetta coach Angela Hurt warned her team that Roswell was going to come out with some fire on their Senior Night, and the Lady Hornets did.
But once Hurt’s team settled in and overcame an initial flurry from the home squad, the Class-AAAAA No. 5 Lady Raiders cruised to their 11th straight victory with a 60-38 road win at J. Tom Zachary Court on Friday night.
Alpharetta (19-3, 10-0 6AAAAA) entered the night having already clinched the regular season region title and a berth in the state tournament. The Lady Raiders took Roswell’s best shot early, falling behind 17-11 after one period before storming into the lead at the half and pulling away over the final 16 minutes.
“We said to them that it was Senior Night and it’s usually an emotional night for a team. And we knew that [Roswell] would probably come out playing that way, and they did a great job,” said Hurt. “I think our energy picked up [after the slow start]. In the second half we went to a different level of intensity and that’s what created the separation.”
Alpharetta shook off a hot shooting start from Roswell’s Andreona Keys and Valerie Shields, in which the duo combined for all 17 of the Lady Hornets’ first quarter points. Shields hit her first three 3-point field goals and Keys went 4 for 5 from the field to stake Roswell (10-13, 6-5) to a six-point lead.
But then Alexis Alexander and Kylee Smith took over for the Lady Raiders.
The 6-foot-2 Alexander scored 13 of her team-high 21 points in the first half and Smith scored nine of her 19 in the second quarter, including a buzzer beating lay-in to cap a 17-7 second quarter that gave Alpharetta a 28-24 advantage at the half.
The second half was all Lady Raiders. Alpharetta connected on 13 of 21 shots from the field in the third and fourth quarters and made the going tough on Keys and Shields. Roswell converted just three second half field goal attempts and was done in by a 22-8 third quarter run from the visitors.
Alexander went 10 for 15 from the floor and added nine rebounds with four blocks. Smith went 7 for 15 and dished out four assists while creating four steals.
Even with 6-foot-4 center Delaney Hollenbeck departing in the first quarter after reaggravating an ankle injury, Roswell had no answer for Alexander and Smith.
“They’re always important. Kylee is so tall and long…she does a great job defensively and has all year for us, guarding, a lot of times, the best scorer,” said Hurt. “And then on the inside, when you have someone as big as Alexis…she has great hands. She’s athletic and quick, too. It’s a good duo to have.”
Guard Lauren Brown provided a spark in the third period as well. Her 3-point play gave Alpharetta its biggest lead at 38-30 and the Lady Raiders would score the next 10 points to silence the Roswell crowd.
After going scoreless in the first half, Brown finished with nine points.
“Lauren, a lot of times, you just have to tell her to pick it up and she responds well to that. She’s an extra spark that takes us over the top,” said Hurt.
Keys scored a game-high 23 points, but she went just 2 for 7 from the field in the second half after making 6 of 8 in the first half. Shields finished with 13 and Alyssa Martinek scored two, as the three players combined for all of Roswell’s points.
With two home games remaining against Milton and West Forsyth, Alpharetta will look to remain perfect in the region and continue checking off items on the team’s preseason goal list.
“One of our goals is to get 20 wins. So that’s the next goal we wanna reach, and making the state tournament,” said Hurt. “But the next goal would be to make it to the final four. We wanna play at Gwinnett and then see what happens.”
Roswell closes the regular season at rival Milton next Friday.
BLESSED TRINITY BOYS 53, JACKSON 50
Senior Sean Damaska scored 16 points with 12 rebounds and made two free throws with 9.5 seconds remaining as the Titans held off the Jaguars in Roswell on Friday night to claim sole possession of second place behind South Atlanta in Subregion B of 6AA.
The 6-foot-7 Damaska, who also blocked three shots and came up with three steals, sank two free throws after Jackson (13-4, 4-4) had closed to within 51-50 on a 3-pointer. With one final chance to tie, a Jackson 3-point attempt from the left corner clanked off the back iron and Damaska pulled down the rebound as the final horn sounded.
Nick Formaro added nine points and Patrick Lamar chipped in eight for BT (15-8, 5-3), which closes the regular season with road games at Lovett and South Atlanta on Tuesday and Friday.
Coris Williams scored a game-high 17 points to lead Jackson. He also pulled down eight rebounds and collected five steals in the losing effort.
