By Bob Sutton
Special to The Alamance News
Southeast Alamance is more than halfway through the regular season in girls’ basketball after a three-game sweep in the Holiday Hoopla tournament.
The host Stallions repeated as tournament champions by defeating Chapel Hill 50-30 in Tuesday night’s final.
“Our girls played so hard,” Southeast coach Amy Sarratt said. “We hadn’t seen that type of physical play.”
Rreanna Johnson scored 14 points and Shaniya Paylor, the tournament’s Most Valuable Player, and Clara LaChapelle each had nine points for the Stallions. Johnson and LaChapelle were all-tournament selections.
Southeast (13-0) extended its lead to 37-21 going to the fourth quarter in a rematch of last year’s tournament title game.
Defense marked Southeast’s tournament domination as no opponent scored more than 10 first-half points vs. the Stallions.
“All of our games we needed that until we got our offense going,” Sarratt said. “We had some good play from our bench that really helped because some of the foul trouble.”
LaChapelle, who wore a protective mask after taking an unintended blow to the face from a teammate during a previous game, had 10 rebounds against Chapel Hill (8-4).
Southeast opened the tournament by defeating Green Hope 45-12 before topping The Burlington School 59-18.
Paylor had 13 points against Green Hope, which didn’t score in the first half. Johnson had 16 points vs. TBS.
TBS notched a 47-44 first-round victory against Durham Jordan. The Spartans lost 67-40 to Green Level in the third-place game.
Southern Alamance finished in last place, falling 48-15 to Chapel Hill, 54-10 to Orange, and 39-36 to Durham Jordan.
Kamryn Russell of TBS and Cayla Shaw of Southern were all-tournament picks.
Orange claimed fifth place by defeating Green Hope 55-47.
Ledford Holiday Tournament
Western Alamance won the tournament by defeating host Ledford 57-49 in Tuesday night’s title game.
After their 32-24 halftime lead disappeared, the Warriors rallied from a 43-38 hole from early in the fourth quarter. Ava Mitchell’s three-point play broke a 49-49 tie to begin a game-ending 8-0 run for Western (7-1). Kayra Benitez and Emery Webster both provided two points in the closing stretch.
Webster was named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player, while teammate Regan Averett landed on the all-tournament team. Ledford fell to 6-5.
Western topped South Davidson 65-7 and beat East Forsyth 59-41 in its first two games in the tournament. London Hairston of the Warriors had a big game in the lane with rebounding and blocked shots vs. East Forsyth.
