Tuesday March 19th, 2024 5:20AM

(VIDEO) Basketball: Lady Wolves beat West Hall in battle of ranked teams; Buford boys pull away late

By Jeff Hart Sports Reporter

BUFORD — Tough-to-please Buford girls coach Gene Durden loved his team’s effort in a 30-point third quarter Saturday in a matchup of ranked teams against West Hall.

However, it also left him more than just a little annoyed despite the Class AAAAA No. 1-ranked Lady Wolves’ eventual 61-33 win at the new Buford City Arena.

“Great effort coming out of halftime,” said Durden, who watched his team force eight straight turnovers turning them into 15 points as part of a 26-4 run. Adding though while shaking his head,“it also means when you have that much energy in the third quarter you left a lot out there in the first half. We can’t pick and choose when to play with energy. That will get us beat for sure in the playoffs. We need to do it all 32 minutes.”

West Hall coach Bryan Richerson had an opposite reaction for his Class AAAA third-ranked Lady Spartans. They battled Buford toe-to-toe for the first 17 minutes trailing just 24-20 a minute into the third quarter. West Hall forced nine Buford turnovers in the first quarter alone and led 13-10 midway through the second quarter.

“I thought we played very well in the first half,” Richerson said. “We missed six layups in the first half as well so we really had a chance to go up bigger. But we did not play well at all in the third quarter. Our effort was not there after halftime. You can’t do that against teams as good as they are.”

Buford (17-1) was coming off its first loss of the season on Friday to Class A Private No. 1 St. Francis. West Hall (16-5) was riding a five-game win streak coming in and had won 15-of-16 since a 1-3 start. The Lady Spartans only losses in that span have been to Class AAAAA No. 2 Flowery Branch in the Lanierland finals and now No. 1 Buford.

It was a defensive show from both teams early on as West Hall used a tough half-court zone while Buford employed its patented full-court press. At one point in the first quarter the two teams had combined for 11 turnovers and just eight points.

Buford led just 10-7 after the first quarter and 3-pointers by Macey Passmore and Anna McKendree gave West Hall what would be its only lead of the game at 13-10 with 4:40 left in the half.

Buford also could not capitalize on the offensive end with several offensive fouls and missed four layups of its own on its end.

“We created a lot of opportunities in the first half with our defense but we didn’t take advantage of them,” Durden said. “We just tried to speed the game up in the third quarter.”

Buford answered West Hall’s only lead with a 10-2 run to close out the half and then used its big third quarter run to push that 24-20 lead to a 50-26 advantage heading into the fourth quarter. The Lady Spartans never got closer.

Richerson knew it would be a huge test for his squad, which is trying to elevate itself to be considered among the consistent elite programs. He is hoping his group will use it as a learning tool.

“We scheduled them because we want to play the best,” Richerson said. “(Buford) may be the top one or two teams in the state any classification. Their press may be the best in the state.

“If our girls want to play at the next level, that is what they can expect to see. Also, we will see some of that in the playoffs so they need to know how to handle it. We need to do a much better job.”

West Hall finished with 26 turnovers and Buford had 18 for the game. The Lady Wolves’ also went 14-of-20 from the free throw line while West Hall was just 1-for-4.

Tory Ozment led Buford with 12 points but it was her defense on West Hall sharp-shooter McKendree that was more damaging to the Lady Spartans. The taller Ozment held McKendree to just eight points, and just two in the second half. Passmore finished with nine points and Danielle Hinkelman added five for West Hall.

Marissa Bruce had 11 points and Jessica Nelson and Mary Walters had nine points apiece as nine different Lady Wolves scored.

Buford will get another challenge on Tuesday in a rematch with No. 2 Flowery Branch at home. The Lady Wolves beat the Lady Falcons 53-44 in their first Region 8-AAAAA meeting last month in Flowery Branch.

West Hall will play host to Blessed trinity on Tuesday in a Region 7-AAAA rematch. The Lady Spartans won the first meeting 65-43 in Roswell.

BUFORD BOYS 75,
WEST HALL 53

Five Buford players scored in double figures as the Wolves used a 15-6 third quarter run to break open a surprisingly close game.

The No. 1-ranked Wolves (17-2) led just 41-38 after West Hall’s Xzavier Reid scored a pair of baskets to cap an 8-2 run for the Spartans (6-13) coming out of halftime.

But Buford answered with a 9-0 spurt and later took a 56-44 lead into the fourth quarter. The Wolves opened the fourth quarter with a 13-3 run to put the game out of reach.

Buford could never shake West Hall in the first half despite running out to leads as big as 11 in the first quarter and 12 in the second quarter. Each time Reid sparked runs for the Spartans who pulled within 28-27 midway through the second quarter.

Buford’s balance was just too much. Donell Nixon and Marcus Watson each had 16 points to lead the Wolves. Tobi Obasanya had 13 points and David Viti and Alex Jones added 10 points apiece for Buford.

Reid had a game-high 22 points to lead West Hall. Noah Edmondson added 12 points and Braden Martin had 10 for the Spartans.

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