Lanierland girls roundup

RABBITTOWN - The No. 7-ranked Johnson girls basketball team has had their eye on the Class AAA No. 1-ranked Gainesville girls for a week now.

The Lady Knights, who are trying to build a program to emulate the success of the lady Elephants, will get their first crack at them next Friday when the two teams meet in the semifinals of the Pepsi Lanierland Tournament.

East Hall and Flowery Branch will meet in the other semifinal on Friday.

The finals are slated for Saturday at North Hall.

The top-seeded Lady Knights whipped North Hall 70-50 behind 21 points from Whitney Randolph and No. 4-seed Gainesville routed lakeview Academy 69-27 behind 20 points from Kita Waller.

Johnson (6-0) ran out to a quick 7-0 run to start the game against North Hall and never looked back.

The Lady Knights had been battling illness most of the week but that didn't seem to affect them. The Lady Trojans (2-5) closed to 7-5 but then Johnson went on a 10-0 run to take control of the game. They led 22-10 after the first quarter and 37-21 at halftime.

Sarah Lane added 15 points for Johnson. North Hall was led by Megan Westmoreland, who finished with a game-high 24 points.

GAINESVILLE 69, LAKEVIEW ACADEMY 27

Sophomore Kita Waller poured in 20 points and Tasha Humphrey added 16 to lead the Lady Elphants (9-2) to an easy win.

Gainesville used an 18-4 first quarter to put the game out of reach against the Lady Lions early.

Lakeview scored less than 10 points in each of the first three quarters. The Lady Lions were led by Taylor Hein and Elizabeth Campbell with 5 points each.

EAST HALL 41, CHESTATEE 39

Brittany Smith hit two free throws with 5.8 seconds left and the Lady Vikings watched as a Chestatee chance to tie the game fell just short.

East Hall (7-1) used a 15-6 in the third quarter to erase a 27-18 Chestatee lead and tie the game at 33. The Lady Vikings then took a 39-36 lead with just over a minute left and looked in control.

But the Lady War Eagles (3-5) Erika Rilet hit 3-of-4 free throws within a five second span to tie the game at 39.

Wittney Pruitt led East Hall with 12 points and Lisa Coleman had 7. Chestatee was led by Riley and Julie Arthur with 9 points each and Brook Puckett added 7.

FLOWERY BRANCH 52, WEST HALL 42

Freshman Courtney Newton led the Lady Falcons (7-2) to the win pouring in 18 points.

Flowery Branch overcame a sluggish first three quarters to pull away in the fourth quarter. They outscored West Hall (5-2) 16-9 in the final period.

The Lady Falcons led just 16-13 at the end of the first quarter and 36-33 heading into the fourth quarter.

Kristina Tyler added 16 points and beth Adcock 11 for Flowery Branch.

Martin Vital led the Lady Spartans with 15 points. Paige Hanson added 11.