Lamar boys win, Girls lose
By Don Gearhart
In two games where a total of 123 free throws caused for very long games, the Lamar girls fell short. The boys, on the other hand, came away with their second win of the season.
Girls:
The Latta Lady Vikings built an early 12-7 lead after one period. They extended their lead to 27-12 at the half. Latta fashioned six 3-point shots and felt pretty comfortable going into the locker room at the half.
The third period showed a little more offense for the Lady Silver Foxes but Latta continued to outscore the hosts by ten points in the period to take a 47-22 lead entering the final period.
Latta cleared their bench and all of a sudden Lamar got red hot. They outscored the Lady Vikings 23-6 in the final stanza to make a respectable showing against a team coming into the contest with an 8-7 record compared to the Lady Silver Foxes at 1-12.
Both Shawniza Bethea and Koliya Herman scored 15 points apiece for Latta while McKala Legette tallied 11 points. Lamar was led by Harmony Daniels who accounted for 19 points in the losing effort She was supported by LaKayla Peoples with 14 points and Nyasia Stephens with 11 points.
Latta was 8-27 from the charity stripe while Lamar was 16-28.
Boys:
After falling behind 4-0 to start the game, Lamar fought back on six points from Nashaun Quillen and took their first lead at 8-6 when Keaton Braddock nailed a trifecta from the corner. The other four points in the quarter belonged to De’Lontae Martin who scored on a drive and added two free throws to give Lamar a 13-9 lead at the end of Period One.
The Silver Foxes were outscored by three points in the second period as the referee’s whistles constantly blew and missed free throws prevented higher scoring by both teams. Lamar held on to a slim 24-23 lead at the half.
Lamar was able to increase that lead to 41-38 through three periods of play amid balanced scoring and a very tight man-to-man defense against the taller Vikings.
The final period proved to be the highest scoring output of the night. As time began to run out on the Vikings and down by six points, their only play was to foul the Lamar players in hopes of trading zero or one point for two or three at their end of the court. Martin made the Vikings pay as he converted four points from the free throw line to ice the game at 70-57.
The winner stood to double their season win column as Lamar entered the contest with a 1-13 record against the Vikings at 1-14.
Martin led the Silver Foxes with 22 points and Quillen chipped in the 14. Jason Cross had 18 points for Latta who also showed Chris Mcrae with 12 points.