By Bob Sutton
Special to The Alamance News
Southeast Alamance’s girls’ basketball team secured the program’s first outright regular-season conference championship by defeating visiting Eastern Alamance 54-44 in Friday night’s showdown for first place in the Mid-Carolina Conference.
“Now we’re conference champs by ourselves,” senior guard Shaniya Paylor said.
An Eastern victory would have forged a tie with the Stallions, who had limited available players by game’s end.
Coach Amy Sarratt said Southeast relied on last season’s experience that resulted in a state championship when encountering challenges.
“We’ve been in a lot of high-pressure situations,” she said.
Paylor’s 14 points and Natalie Lopez’s 11 points paced the Stallions.
After Eastern closed within 34-30 in the third quarter, Paylor had her team’s next seven points.
“She kind of controlled the game,” Sarratt said.
Ciara Payton gave Southeast some early boosts. The Stallions played most of the game without Rreanna Johnson, who went out with an ankle injury with 1:55 left in the first quarter after already scoring eight points.
Southeast began the fourth quarter on an 8-1 spurt for a 50-39 lead, with Inysia McIver supplying half of those points.
After making what Sarratt referred to as key defensive plays and steals, center Clara LaChapelle fouled out with 4:05 remaining.
Eastern scored the next five points. The Stallions won without a field goal in the final four minutes.
“We had to step up on defense,” Paylor said.
Makayla Scott’s 13 points and Aliya Trollinger’s nine points and 10 rebounds led Eastern. The Eagles were hurt by 2-for-8 shooting on free throws in the fourth quarter.
Southeast’s game vs. Eastern was the middle assignment of three games in four days, beginning with a 54-27 road victory against Western Alamance when LaChapelle had 16 points and McIver notched 14 points.
Lopez provided 15 points and McIver had 11 points as Southeast capped a 23-0 regular season with Saturday’s 56-21 home victory against Williams. Ry’Leigh Surles notched 11 points for Williams.
Other results
- Trollinger’s 17 points and 11 rebounds and Rihanna Gregory’s 15 points came in Eastern’s 51-37 home victory against Western Alamance last Thursday.
- Malia Scott’s 19 points and Surles’ 12 points helped Williams defeat Southern Alamance 59-38 last Thursday. Brianna White and Sarah Kathryn Maness each scored 10 for Southern.
- Emery Webster posted 20 points as Western topped host Southern 59-27 on Friday. White scored 17 for Southern.
Western finished regular-season play with Monday’s 64-44 home victory against Roxboro Person with Reagan Averett’s 17 points, Webster’s 13 points and Ava Mitchell’s 10 points the top marks.
- Cummings ended the regular season with Saturday’s 72-66 victory at Roxboro Person.
- Clover Garden’s first Central Tar Heel 1-A Conference loss came with a 29-24 home decision to second-place Chatham Charter on Saturday, giving both teams a league loss with one game to play.
Brooke Massey had 15 points when Clover Garden defeated visiting Central Carolina Academy 52-4 last week. When the Grizzlies won 42-24 at Southern Wake, Zariah Blackwell had 13 points.
Also in the conference, River Mill lost 27-24 at Southern Wake.
