FLOWERY BRANCH — The Buford girls have been touting their depth as a key weapon this season. It was on full display Friday night in their Region 8-AAAAA showdown against Flowery Branch in a battle of the top two ranked teams in Class AAAAA.
Fueled by their patented full-court press, the No. 2 Lady Wolves erased an early deficit with a 17-2 second quarter run to grab the lead and then held on for a 53-44 victory over the No. 1 Lady Falcons.
Buford (6-0, 3-0 Region 8-AAAAA) forced 8 second quarter turnovers, half on steals, and turned a slim 13-12 lead into a 30-14 advantage. Flowery Branch (9-2, 3-1) never got closer than 10 until a Lexi Sengkhammee 3-pointer provided the final points of the game with just 17 seconds left.
Buford coach Gene Durden said using their 12-person rotation has been an effective recipe for success so far.
“We feel our depth is our strength and in the second quarter you could see our press begin to tire them out some,” he said. “I thought we did some good things in that quarter but we weren’t as good in the second half. It’s just one game so we’ll look at what we did good, and not so good, and try to get better.”
Flowery Branch coach Courtney Newton-Gonzalez agreed that the second quarter was the difference. The Lady Falcons had more turnovers (8), than points (5), and went nearly five minutes without scoring.
“We outscored them in the second half so I think we showed than we can play with them,” Newton-Gonzalez said. “But, you can’t take a quarter off like we did in the second. We just had too many lapses and you can’t do that against this level of competition.”
Much of the state was focused on the Flowery Branch gym expecting an instant-classic.The first quarter was everything fans came expecting to see.
Flowery Branch forced a quick Buford turnover and grabbed a 4-0 lead on a Queen Scott layup. But the Lady Wolves regrouped to take a 5-4 lead on a 3-pointer by Audrey Weiner.
The lead would change hands four times to go with four ties at 6, 8, 10, and 12 as 10 different players combined between the teams scored. The quarter ended with Buford taking a 13-12 lead on a Marissa Bruce free throw. But the Lady Wolves showed signs in the final moments of the first quarter that their press was stymying the Lady Falcons offense with three late turnovers.
Buford put its depth to use and turned up the defensive heat in the second quarter. A 3-pointer by Rachel Dobbs capped an 8-2 run in the first three minutes of the period for a 21-14 lead. The press was lethal over the next two-plus minutes forcing five straight Flowery Branch turnovers, three by steal, as the Lady Wolves opened a 30-14 lead after five consecutive points from Tory Ozment.
The Lady Falcons pulled within 30-17 by halftime on a basket by Janoah Williams and a Taniyah Worth free throw. The eight Flowery Branch turnovers in the period led to 10 Buford points. Buford had just six turnovers for the entire first half and just four over the final 13 minutes while building its lead.
It was more of the same to open the third quarter as Buford forced three early turnovers and pushed its lead to 40-22 with three minutes left. The Lady Falcons offense finally got going using an 8-2 run to pull within 40-32 and then trimmed the lead to 42-32 on a Scott basket to open the fourth quarter.
The Lady Wolves responded with a 9-2 run for a 51-34 lead with just over five minutes left but Flowery Branch closed out the game on a 10-2 run.
Ozment led nine Buford scorers with 18 points, 11 in the second half. Zikaya Wright added eight points and Weiner seven for the Lady Wolves.
Scott finished with 16 points to pace Flowery Branch, 10 coming during the second half rally. Taniyah Worth had 14 points and Sengkhammee six for the Lady Falcons.
Both coaches, however, downplayed the results.
“It’s still early in the season and we’ll see them at least one more time and I’m sure they’ll make some adjustments and so will we,” Durden said.
“This won’t break our season,” Newton-Gonzalez said. “We’ll get ready for our next game and hopefully correct the mistakes we made tonight.”
BUFORD BOYS 66
FLOWERY BRANCH 54
The No. 1-ranked Wolves trailed early but used a 13-3 run to grab the lead and eventually pulled away for the win to stay unbeaten.
Buford (8-0, 3-0 Region 8-AAAAA) got a game-high 18 points from Alex Jones and 14 from David Viti. Marcus Watson and Donell Nixon had nine points each for the Wolves.
The Falcons (7-2, 2-2) countered with 17 points from Brannon Clark, 13 in the second half. John Mills had 10 points and Myles Janess nine for Flowery Branch.
Buford could never completely shake the Falcons. The Wolves ran out to leads as big as 16 points once and 15 three times, but each time Flowery Branch answered.
Buford led 17-10 after the first quarter and pulled away for a 31-16 lead. But the Falcons rallied to within 33-21 by halftime.
The Wolves opened the third quarter with a 9-5 run for a 42-26 lead. Flowery Branch closed out the period with a 14-6 spurt to get within 48-40 heading into the fourth quarter.
But again Buford pulled away, taking a 57-42 lead with five minutes left. The Falcons stormed back again, closing to within 60-54 with just over a minute left after back-to-back 3-pointers from Clark and Mills.
The Wolves sealed the game hitting four free throws and getting a steal and layup from Jones with 22 seconds left.
http://accesswdun.com/article/2016/12/481961/basketball-buford-sweeps-branch-in-key-8-aaaaa-battles