The victory sends the Panthers (20-9) back to their home away from home, the Northeast Regional Tournament at Jacksonville State University. Spring Garden will face Parkway Christian (12-16), a 63-61 winner over Jacksonville Christian in other sub-regional action on Tuesday at 6 p.m.
“We’re excited about going back,” Spring Garden coach Ricky Austin said. “We’ve had a lot of sickness and a lot of injuries this season that have led to a lot of inconsistencies for us as a team. It affected how we played, but our kids were very hungry tonight. They weren’t intimidated. They showed good heart and desire, and that was nice to see.”
Spring Garden jumped out to a 23-7 first-quarter advantage behind the shooting of Tara Mullinax, Jordan Sides and Katie Rickman. Rickman drained back-to-back 3-pointers to end the quarter on a strong note.
Mullinax led the Panthers with 22 points and 14 rebounds. Sides and Rickman both had 10 points.
Athens Bible (15-9) outscored Spring Garden 9-8 in the second quarter, but the Panthers regained momentum in the second half.
“We came back out in the third and kind of took care of business.,” Austin said. “We couldn’t get away from Athens Bible, though. They played very hard. It was a really loud and really intense environment, but we managed to slow things down and took care of the basketball. We’re most definitely going to use this win as a confidence-builder.”
Natalie Anderson led the Lady Trojans with seven points. Allie McCurry and Stefanie McClure both finished with five points.
“The girls were business-like tonight,” Austin said. “We celebrated a little bit in the locker room after the horn sounded, but it wasn’t too high. I think they were tired. We had a hard week of practice this week. We’ll try and take it easy on them for the next couple of days, but we’re very excited about going back to Jacksonville.”
Class 2A Northeast Sub-Regional
North Sand Mountain 56, Sand Rock 34
HIGDON – The Sand Rock Lady Wildcats have prided themselves on defense this season.
While it served them well once again against North Sand Mountain in Class 2A Northeast Sub-Regional action on Thursday, the offense couldn’t get going in a 56-34 season-ending loss.
The Wildcats (16-14) connected on just seven of 42 shots from the floor (17 percent). The majority of their points came at the free-throw line, where Sand Rock connected on 18 of 23 shots from the charity stripe.
Gena Farmer led Sand Rock with 12 points, all coming from the free-throw line. Farmer connected on 12 of 15 shots from the line. She also had 10 rebounds.
Nicole Soignet came away with eight points. Carrie Robertson had seven points and eight boards. Emily Ozment also finished with eight rebounds.
North Sand Mountain (25-6), which set a new girls record for made 3-pointers this season, only connected on five 3-pointers against Sand Rock on Thursday.
“We got them into the game we wanted, but we just had trouble scoring again,” Sand Rock coach Lisa Bates said. “It’s been a struggle all year, and we’ve worked on it, but we knew coming in that was one of our weaknesses. I was proud of our defense again. This is probably one of the better defensive teams I’ve had. They’ve all been working and trying hard, but it just didn’t turn out our way tonight.”
Sand Rock trailed 10-3 at the end of the first quarter and 18-7 at the half. North Sand Mountain took control in the second half, holding a 35-20 advantage heading into the fourth.
North Sand Mountain advances to the Class 2A Northeast Regional Tournament in Jacksonville, where it will face Ohatchee on Monday at 6 p.m.
Class 3A Northeast Sub-Regional
Altamont 49, Piedmont 38
BIRMINGHAM – Piedmont’s season came to an end against Altamont on Thursday in Class 3A Northeast Sub-Regional action, 49-38.
Yorisha Bryant and Addison Powell both had 16 points to lead Altamont (15-3), which takes on Pisgah in the Class 3A Northeast Regional Tournament on Wednesday at noon at Jacksonville State University’s Pete Mathews Coliseum.
Morgan Smoke added 12 points for the Knights, while Raven Prater led Piedmont (16-12) with 15 points and Breanna Thompson had 12.
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