The boys opened their game going up 16-11 in the first quarter. They managed to widen the lead in the second quarter to 11 points but could not maintain that lead till the half.
“I thought we came out and played decent but once we got the lead we did not play like we did to get the lead,” said AHS coach Jason Slate. “We suddenly went brain dead and went through a stretch of really bad offense and defense.”
Alexander lead 34-32 at the half but the lead completely disappeared in the third quarter as Carrollton went up, 47-48.
The game went back and forth for the first half of the fourth, before Alexander finally began to mount a little momentum.
“We pulled away with about four or five minutes to play for a little breathing room,” Slate said. “We hit a couple of shots and were able to keep them out of the paint. We also had a couple of big defensive rebounds.”
AHS went on to win by eight.
The Cougars had a well balanced offensive attack in the game, with four players scoring in double digits. Karim Mawuenyega led the team with 16 points. Mikell Lands followed with 14, Lemarcus Frazier scored 13, and Hassani Gravett added 12.
The Lady Cougars suffered a devastating loss to the Lady Trojans, not because of the score, but because two separate injuries to starting players.
AHS opened the first quarter playing toe-to-toe with Carrollton but four minutes into the game, Molly Brown went face first into the hard court, and had to leave the game with concussion like symptoms.
Down 14-11 entering the second quarter, Lady Cougar starting post player Daijea Anderson suffered a leg injury and had to leave the game momentarily. She re-entered but Alexander trailed 36-16 at halftime.
The injury bug struck Anderson again in the third quarter as she screamed in pain after twisting her leg a second time. This time she would not come back. Anderson will have testing today to determine if she tore her ACL, which is usually a year recovery.
Alexander trailed 50-25 by the end of the third quarter but at this point the game result was second to the health of the two starters. AHS was outscored 14-4 over the final eight minutes.
“We were playing fantastic early but the two injuries pretty much sums up the game for us,” said Alexander coach Marcy Camp. “Hopefully Molly’s injury will only hold her out two weeks and Daijea’s injury is something less severe than the trainers think. The two injuries are just blending together right now.”
With Anderson out, Deanna Dorsey stepped up under the glass, providing a team high 13 points.
“She played phenomenally,” Camp said. “She was working her butt off on defense and was picking up a ton of boards. She was getting in position underneath and getting in front of girls. She improves every game.”
With the two injuries, AHS is not down to seven players on the roster. Both the Lady Cougars and Cougar boys will now prepare for visiting Columbus on Friday. They will then square off with intra-county opponent Lithia Springs on Saturday. Both will have 6 p.m. starts.
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