Lawrence County sweeps Prentiss in season debut

Published 7:00 pm Tuesday, November 9, 2010

MONTICELLO-The Lawrence County Lady Cougars lived up to theirlofty preseason expectations in the opening night of the 2010-11high school basketball season. The Lady Cougars blew out old rivalPrentiss 71-32 Saturday night, rolling up a 45-15 first halfadvantage before substituting liberally for the remainder of thegame.

High-scoring junior Tiaria Griffin led LCHS and all scorers with 22points. Mary Margaret McLaurin added 12 for the Lady Cougars. TyraGriffin had 9, and Taylor Brister added 8.

Angelica Walker led the Lady Bulldogs with 13.

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“It was a good opening night,” said Lady Cougar coach VickiRutland. “It’s always good to get that first one behind you. We sawplenty of things that we’ve got to improve on – rebounding for one- but it was, all in all, a decent game for us. Every girl got toplay, and a lot of them gave us quality minutes.”

Cougars Notch Win

The boys game was a high-flying, raucous affair that saw the hostCougars rebound from an early deficit to claim a 70-66 win. It wasa good start to the season, according to second-year LawrenceCounty coach Pat Bridges, whose team is looking to rebound fromlast season’s 9-19 mark.

“It was a little bit of an ugly win,” Bridges said, “but we’llabsolutely take it. We’ve got to do a better job defensively. Wemust rebound better, and we missed a lot of free throws. I thoughtthe effort was generally very good, though.”

Prentiss jumped out to an early lead, and led 22-14 at the end ofthe first period. LCHS rattled off 28 second-quarter points andtook the lead for good. The Cougars stretched their lead to doubledigits in the third quarter, saw that margin shrink to as few as 4points, then regained control toward the end.

“Prentiss came out and played with tremendous energy in that firstquarter,” Bridges said. “They were moving faster than we were. Ithought we were able to sort of wear them down after that,though.”

David Haynes led Lawrence County with 18 points, and J.J. Evansfollowed with 17. Brandon Daniels and Antonio Batiste each scored15 points. Justin Powell led the Bulldogs with 16 points andRomelvin Barnes followed with 15.

The Cougars and Lady Cougars will host Wilkinson Countytonight.