In a defensive battle, Daijea Anderson led a Lady Cougar fourth period surge to a 40-28 victory over the Lady Tigers in the opening game. The Alexander boys stunned Troup late in the fourth period and then won in overtime, 77-71.
The AHS girls took a 9-8 lead in the first period despite a slow start. The Lady Cougars did not hit their first shot until the 3:52 mark when Treasure Matthews knocked down a 2-point jumper. Alexander trailed at that point 6-2.
The Lady Cougars took their first lead of the game less than two minutes later when Daijea Anderson put in a layup for a 7-6 lead. Down by one with a second on the clock, Brittany Edenfield scored on a layup to give Alexander the lead at the end of the first.
The second half was a back-and-forth affair with neither team able to take an advantage. A 2-point shot from AHS’s Imari Montalvo tied the game at 16-16 with a minute to go and the score remained the same entering halftime.
Though low scoring, Alexander had a well balanced offensive attack over the first two periods with six players netting two points or more. Anderson led the team with four points. Jessica Gilbert led Troup County with seven points.
The third period started slowly for both teams and after tying the game at 20-20 two minutes in, neither team would score for the next four minutes. Down by one, with 4.7 seconds left in the third, Anderson stepped to the line and connected on both free throws for a Lady Cougar 24-23 lead heading into the final period. Anderson scored the final four points in the third.
AHS began to pull away in the fourth thanks to Anderson and Molly Brown. Up 26-25, Anderson hit a layup and Brown followed with a 3-pointer for a six point lead. Anderson later added a layup plus a foul shot, putting the Lady Cougars up 34-26 with four minutes to play. With 30 seconds to go, Anderson gave Alexander a 10 point lead with another layup. She then added the final two points to seal the 12 point victory.
Anderson scored 15 points in the second half for a game high 19. Brown controlled the ball and managed to find Anderson repeatedly under the basket. Gilbert scored 10 for Troup County.
In the latter game, The Cougars jumped out to an 11-8 first period lead but trailed 31-28 at the half.
Karim Mawuenyega led AHS at the half with 11 points. Demetrius Trammel netted a team high 10 for the Tigers.
Steals and fast breaks were the story of the third period as Troup continued to build a four or five point lead but each time the Cougars closed the gap.
As the clock neared the two minute mark, Gerron Brooks hit a 3-pointer and Logan Mushro followed with a long 2-point shot to give AHS a 45-42 advantage, their first lead of the period. Brooks added another trey and AHS led 48-44 with eight minutes to play.
The Cougars lost their lead midway through the fourth and with two minutes to play found themselves down 61-54 because of an inability to hit shots from the line.
Forced to foul late, Alexander looked out of it with 15 seconds to go and down by four. However, Mawuenyega let go a 3-pointer with 10 seconds on the clock, was fouled, and hit the shot from the line to tie the game at 66-66, forcing overtime.
In OT, the Cougars took a 72-69 lead with 2:30 to play. A free throw by Troup cut the deficit to two with two minutes to go. After successfully running a minute off the clock, Mawuenyega was fouled and connected on both shots for an AHS four point advantage. Alexander managed to sink enough free throws from there for the stunning victory.
Mawuenyega led the Cougars with 28 points, including eight points in overtime. He was 6-for-6 from the line in OT. Buckner led the Tigers with 21 points.
The Cougars and Lady Cougars will be back in action Tuesday when they travel to Shaw for a pair of region games. Girls will start at 6 p.m. and boys will follow at 7:30 p.m.
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