By Bob Sutton
Special to The Alamance News
Southeast Alamance’s experienced girls’ basketball team received a stern test from host Eastern Alamance before pulling out a 57-54 victory in Tuesday night’s Mid-Carolina Conference game.
The undefeated Stallions took the lead on Rreanna Johnson’s three-point play with 50.9 seconds remaining, marking the final of 10 fourth-quarter lead changes or ties in front of an overflow crowd.
“We knew going in this was going to be a tough one,” Southeast coach Amy Sarratt said, “especially here in this environment.”
The Stallions (17-0 overall, 6-0 Mid-Carolina Conference) received 20 points from Shaniya Paylor and 17 from Johnson.
Rihanna Gregory cranked out 18 points and Aliya Trollinger had 11 points for Eastern (12-3, 5-1)
Johnson described the intensity rising because of “two teams from the same city.”
Southeast was in only its second game decided by a single-digit margin, but the reigning state champions had been in tight spots last season with much of the same roster.
“Dealing with the pressure like that, it was a sign of a veteran team.” Sarratt said.
Gregory’s 3-pointer and Ty’Tiana Ross’ basket gave Eastern a 48-44 lead. Twice in the final four minutes, Gregory hit jumpers to pull Eastern even before Southeast’s Inysia McIver made a free throw after grabbing an offensive rebound.
Trollinger’s basket put Eastern up 53-52 at the 1:08 mark. Then Johnson seized the moment with a shot from the lane.
“I felt it was my time,” Johnson said. “It was our time to win the game.”
An Eastern turnover was followed by Paylor sinking one free throw. The Eagles had two shot attempts in the last five seconds, but neither got to the rim.
Earlier, Eastern built a 19-14 lead before Southeast scored on its last three possessions of the second quarter for a 24-23 lead at the break.
“We needed to get the ball inside and we’d have people open that we could get it to,” Sarratt said.
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The Stallions made it an 11-0 run bridging the two halves, but Gregory heated up to put the Eagles back in contention. Southeast led 42-41 going to the fourth.
- Southeast strolled past visiting Roxboro Person 57-19 on Friday. Johnson scored 17.
- Eastern topped visiting Seaforth 69-37 in last Thursday’s non-league game with Trollinger scoring 18 points and Gregory providing 15 points.
Other results
Western Alamance won 64-30 at Southern Alamance on Tuesday.
Last Friday, Western topped host Williams 62-50 despite Salem Hatfield’s 20 points for the Bulldogs.
- Southern fell 54-36 to visiting Southwest Guilford last week. Cayla Shaw had 14 points and Brianna White added 10 points after the Patriots fell into a 20-0 hole.
The Patriots dropped a 48-27 decision to visiting North Carolina School of Science and Math in Monday’s Tony Perrou Classic. Sara Kathryn Maness had 12 points and Evelyn Garrison notched 10 points for Southern.
- Cummings defeated host Southern 66-44 on Friday night in Mid-Carolina Conference play with Alaiyah Mitchell supplying 37 points.
- Williams snapped an eight-game losing streak with Tuesday’s 77-52 victory at Roxboro Person in Mid-Carolina Conference play.
A day earlier, Williams fell 49-39 to Winston-Salem Reynolds in the Tony Perrou Classic.
- Clover Garden defeated host Woods Charter 42-34 in Friday’s Central Tar Heel 1-A Conference game with Hanna Tickle scoring 10 points.
- River Mill absorbed a 56-22 loss to Vance County in Monday’s Tony Perrou Classic. This followed the Jaguars’ 59-34 Central Tar Heel 1-A Conference loss Friday at Chatham Charter.
