LaFayette teams respond after setbacks
The LaFayette Ramblers and Lady Ramblers made the long drive to Gordon County last Monday night and suffered tough region road losses to state-ranked Sonoraville.
However, both teams responded in style by sweeping Ringgold and Adairsville before the LaFayette boys capped the weekend with a home victory over North Murray in a make-up game.
Sonoraville girls 75, LaFayette 51
In last Monday’s opener, LaTyah Barber poured in 24 points to go with five rebounds and a pair of steals, but it was not nearly enough to get past the Lady Phoenix.
Mykeria Johnson had 10 points, six rebounds, four blocks and a steal for LaFayette. Haven Yancy added eight points and one rebound and Heather Tucker collected three points, five boards, a steal and an assist.
The rest of the stat sheet included efforts from Haynie Gilstrap (2 points, 2 rebounds), Michaela Baker (2 points, 5 rebounds, 1 steal, 1 assist, 1 block) and Jenna Baker (2 points, 1 rebound, 1 assist).
LaFayette girls 60, Ringgold 54
After COVID-19 issues prevented the two teams from facing off earlier this season, the Lady Ramblers and the Lady Tigers put on a show for fans at Dan Priest Gymnasium last Tuesday with the home team emerging with a six-point, Region 6-AAA win.
LaFayette used an 8-2 run at the end the first half to grab a 22-16 lead, only to see Ringgold rally to knot the game at 29 with less than two minutes to play in the third quarter.
However, the Lady Ramblers refused to give up the lead for long. Barber answered with a big 3-pointer from the corner and four points from Johnson and two from Yancy — the latter set up by a late Tucker steal — capped a final 9-0 run as they took a 38-29 advantage into the final eight minutes of play.
LaFayette enjoyed its biggest lead of the night, 50-39, on a step-back three by Johnson with 3:17 to play and, despite a late push by the Lady Tigers, the Orange-and-Black were able to hang for the win.
Barber had 23 points, seven rebounds and three steals, while Johnson had 21 points to go with four rebounds and four blocked shots.
Six points by Yancy, five by Fanny Barber, three by Savanna Hall and two by Tucker rounded out the scoring for the winners. Tucker also recorded a half-dozen steals, while Hall pulled down three rebounds to go with her one steal. Michaela Baker did not score, but came up huge with 12 rebounds and two steals.
LaFayette girls 61, Adairsville 51
The Lady Ramblers held off a tough challenge on Friday to move to 8-5 overall and 5-5 in 6-AAA play.
Johnson had a game-high 22 points to go with six rebounds, four steals, three blocks and three assists. LaTyah Barber went for 16 points, adding nine steals, five assists and a pair of boards, and Yancy picked up nine points, three steals, two rebounds and a block.
Hall scored eight points to go with six boards, a pair of steals and an assist, while four points, four rebounds, three steals and one assist by Tucker filled out the stat sheet.
Sonoraville boys 65, LaFayette 40
A highly-anticipated matchup of unbeaten and stateranked teams became a nightmare for the Ramblers in the final game last Monday as a very cold shooting night, along foul woes and tough defense from the Phoenix, combined to hand LaFayette its first loss of the season.
LaFayette made just 16 of 60 shots, including just 2 of 19 from behind the 3-point line.
Aidan Hadaway had 11 points for the Ramblers, followed by DeCameron Porter with 10, Jaylon Ramsey with eight, Zach Barrett with six and Junior Barber with five.
LaFayette boys 74, Ringgold 41
Still smarting from their first setback of the season less than 24 hours earlier, the Ramblers made amends against the Tigers. A 19-0 first-half run gave them some breathing room and the home team would dominate the second half, en route to the win.
After scoring just two points in the first quarter, Hadaway erupted over the final three quarters to finish with a gamehigh 38 points, his secondhighest of the season. Porter had 20 points in the victory, followed by Barrett with five and Barber with four.
Jordan Kennerly, Dawson Pendergrass and Jaden Morris had two points each and Evan Williams completed the scoring with one.
LaFayette boys 80, Adairsville 61
The Ramblers picked up an impressive win over a Tiger team that took Sonoraville to the wire earlier in the week before dropping a three-point decision.
It was another huge scoring night for Hadaway, who followed up his 38-point performance against Ringgold with a 37-point, 16-rebound outing on Friday.
Since opening January with a school-record 44 points against Ridgeland, the junior has averaged 28 points in eight games this month.
Porter picked up 15 points and 12 rebounds, while Barber added 14 points. Six by Kennerly and four by Ramsey completed the scoring for the Orange-and-Black.
LaFayette boys 66, North Murray 40
The Ramblers hosted a Saturday afternoon matinee makeup game and made quick work of the Mountaineers to move to 12-1 overall and 9-1 in Region 6-AAA.
A 21-5 first quarter gave LaFayette a lead it would never give up. Hadaway and Porter combined for 17 points in the opening stanza and they finished the game with 20 and 18 points, respectively.
Barber added 11 points and Barrett went for six. Ramsey had four, while three from Kennerly, two from Kendall Culbreth and one from Morris completed the scoring.