FLOWERY BRANCH — After dropping their first Region 8-AAAAA game at home last week to Gainesville, the Flowery Branch girls knew they would need to pull out all the stops to defend their home-court against a dangerous Winder-Barrow team Tuesday night.
Especially with second place in the region on the line.
“We couldn’t afford another home region loss,” Flowery Branch coach Courtney Newton said.
But the Lady Falcons fell behind quickly in a sloppy first quarter and junior forward Julianne Sutton got in quick foul trouble giving Newton more than a small cause for concern, even more so with 6-foot-4 Winder-Barrow sophomore center Olivia Nelson-Ododa roaming free inside.
But senior guards Heather Moore and Maddie Hetzel combined for four consecutive 3-pointers to open the second quarter to shoot them back into the lead and the Lady Falcons held on for a tough 51-47 victory at the Flowery Branch gym.
“Heather and Maddie hit some big shots and we created some points off our defense,” Newton said. “That was a good effort considering Julianne only played about a minute and a half the entire game. We made some adjustments after the first quarter and our defense played much better. That’s a big part of what we do. We didn’t do a good job against Gainesville but we were much better tonight.”
It was a big win for Flowery Branch (17-1, 7-1 Region 8-AAAAA) as the two teams came in tied for second place. The Lady Falcons now own a slight tiebreaker advantage over the Lady Bulldoggs (13-2, 7-1) before the they square off again later in the month in Winder.
It also ended Winder-Barrow’s eight-game winning streak and it was also the first road loss for the Lady Bulldoggs, who were a perfect 6-0 away from home until Tuesday.
Sutton stayed in foul trouble the entire game and Ododa took advantage of the smaller Lady Falcons finishing with 26 points, eight rebounds, two steals, and one block.
Sophomore Taniyah Worth, however, was able to use her quickness against the taller Ododa for several key baskets in the second half. Three times she answered Ododa and the Lady Bulldoggs, who trimmed an 11-point lead down to three on three different occasions.
“(Ododa) is a good player and I just tried to do what I do to help us score,” Worth said. “I may be a little quicker (and I think that helped).”
Newton said controlling the rest of the Lady Bulldoggs was more of a focus than trying to slow down Ododa after Sutton became limited.
“She’s going to get her points, especially since Julianne had a hard time staying on the court,” Newton said. “But there are going to be games like that so we just tried to take away their other scorers. It was tough but we got the win.”
Worth finished with 18 points, 11 coming in the second half, and six rebounds to lead Flowery Branch. Moore had 12 points on four 3-pointers and Hetzel added 10, seven in the third quarter to help stave off a big Winder-Barrow run.
Both teams were cold from the field to start. Flowery Branch missed its first five shots before Kierra Knight drained a long 3-pointer with 4:04 left in the first quarter. Winder-Barrow was just 1-for-8 on a Lexie Moddox basket and a pair of Ododa free throws with a 4-3 lead.
The two teams combined for 10 first quarter turnovers as well with the Lady Bulldogs eventually taking an 8-5 lead heading into the second quarter. The Lady Falcons only other basket came off an offensive rebound from Worth after Ododa took a one minute rest.
As sloppy as the first quarter was, the second quarter was equally sharp, especially for Flowery Branch.
The Lady Falcons came out smoking to start the quarter grabbing the lead on four consecutive 3-pointers, one from Hetzel and three straight from Moore off three consecutive Winder-Barrow turnovers, to take a 17-8 lead. Moore added a fourth 3-pointer in the period as part of a 20-5 run to push the lead to 25-12 with 2:39 left in the half.
But Ododa closed out the second quarter with five straight points to pull Winder-Barrow within 25-17 by halftime. Ododa scored all nine Lady Bulldoggs points in the second quarter and finished the first half with 13 points, five rebounds, two steals, and one block.
Flowery Branch would not trail again but the Lady Bulldoggs chipped away in the third quarter cutting the lead to five midway through the period and Chellia Watson sank a driving layup at the buzzer to pull them within 39-34 heading into the fourth quarter.
Ododa got Winder-Barrow within 41-38 and Watson made it 43-40 early in the period but Sutton managed to provide two huge stick-back baskets to push the Lady Falcons lead back to 49-42 with 2:40 left before she fouled out moments later trying to stop Ododa on a drive to the basket.
Ododa hit the layup but missed the free throw. The Lady Bulldoggs got the rebound but Worth helped seal the win with a steal and layup to push the lead back to 51-44 with 1:35 left. Watson hit a 3-pointer for Winder-Barrow but the Lady Falcons forced another turnover and Worth blocked a Watson shot with 4 seconds left to end any comeback attempt.
Watson finished with 13 points for Winder-Barrow, 11 in the second half.
FLOWERY BRANCH BOYS 69
WINDER-BARROW 49
The Bulldoggs led 5-2 early but Flowery Branch closed out the first quarter with an 8-0 run to grab the lead and then cruised to the Region 8-AAAAA victory.
The win for the Falcons (11-7, 2-6 Region 8-AAAAA) snapped a two-game region losing streak and moved them into eighth place in the region standings.
Brannon Clark was the spark pouring in 15 of his game-high 24 points in the second quarter to help Flowery Branch pull away before halftime. The Falcons led 25-10 behind Clark’s shooting but the Bulldoggs (1-14, 1-7) closed to within 29-16 by halftime.
The Falcons continued their hot shooting to start the third quarter running out to a 41-22 on another Clark 3-pointer. Winder-Barrow used a 7-4 run to get within 45-29 heading into the fourth quarter.
The Bulldoggs got as close as nine points, 47-38, with five minutes left in the fourth quarter before Flowery Branch sealed the win with a 13-2 run over the next three minutes to seal the win.
Flowery Branch was 9-for-9 from the free throw line in the fourth quarter as well.
John Mills added 16 points and Trey Bailey had eight for the Falcons.
Terence Butler had 15 points to pace Winder-Barrow. Drezdin Williams and Brandon Hayes each had eight points for the Bulldoggs.
