Lady Phoenix continue momentum with home region win
The first half of the season was filled with growing pains and setbacks for a young Sonoraville Lady Phoenix team, but within the last week, it’s looking like those struggles are paying off with improved play.
Sonoraville continued a strong last few days on Friday night as they led for almost the entire game and withstood a fourth-quarter charge to earn a 53-43 home win over Region 6-AAA South foe Adairsville.
The Lady Phoenix (4-13, 3-5) started the game steady and continued to build their lead from there, including a 41-22 advantage going to the fourth quarter. Adairsville didn’t go away quietly, cutting the deficit to just seven at 45-38 midway through the final period, but Sonoraville answered the run to finish things off down the stretch.
Sonoraville coach Stephanie Caudell said it was good to see her team build on the momentum they started on Tuesday with a win at Bremen and also to get a win in front of their home crowd.
“No. 1, it feels good to be back here playing a home game because it’s been over a month for us on the road,” said Caudell. “We knew we would have a good crowd, and to give them a good win was our goal tonight. We were able to hold on when they made their run. The kids were excited and felt good about it. Now, we need to try and build on it.”
Sonoraville led 13-9 after the first quarter and then really took control of the game in the second, outscoring the Lady Tigers (6-9, 2-5) 13-6 in the period to build a 26-15 lead going into the break. They continued to put distance between themselves and Adairsville in the third, including going on a 10-0 run midway through the period to build the biggest lead of the game at 39-19.
Maliyah Parks led Sonoraville in scoring with 13 points. The freshman had 11 of those in the second half as she helped her team put the game away.
“I think earlier in the year, if Maliyah didn’t have a good first half, she let it affect her and had a hard time bouncing back in the second half,” said Caudell. “But the last few games, she’s been able to kind of take over the game in the second half. She’s got a good combination of size and speed, and she has improved from the first of the year to now. Hopefully that only gets better as we continue this season and over the next three years.”
Cortney Williams added 12 points, and Grace Darnell, who recently returned from an ankle injury that cost her over a month of the season, contributed 11. Harleigh Chastain also scored eight.
Havyn Isaac and Zay Harris scored 13 apiece to lead Adairsville, and Josie Summerville added 10.
The Lady Phoenix were on the road on Saturday at Southeast Whitfield. They visited rival Calhoun on Tuesday night for another big subregion contest. (For details on that game, see Saturday’s Calhoun Times.) They host Southeast Whitfield on Friday at 7 p.m. for another non-region test.