Pepperell girls, boys roll in region matchups
It was a dominant sweep of region contests on Friday night as both the Pepperell girls and boys won in convincing fashion at home over Dalton Academy.
Here are the details on each of the games: Pepperell boys 94, Dalton Academy 41 It took almost the entire first quarter for the Dragons to get going, but once they did, the home team took off and never looked back, blitzing the visiting Dalton Academy Pumas at The Fire Pit on Friday night.
Although the final score turned lopsided, halfway through the first quarter the Dragons clung to a 10-9 advantage with the Pumas pressing to possibly tie or even take the lead.
“I don’t know how to fix that part of our game right now. We always seem to get off to slow starts. In other games it’s been different, because we look up and we are down 29-13,” Peppered head coach Zach Mendence said. “But every time, these guys are competitors. They get in the flow of the game, and they figure it out. I have all the confidence in the world with them.”
Pepperell’s Eliot Goggans nailed the next basket, and D.J. Rogers then drilled a 3-pointer, scored another basket and stole a ball and went coast-to-coast for a lay-up, helping ignite the crowd and the Dragons’ offense. Seven different Dragons scored from the 1:37 mark in the first quarter to the 5:49 mark in the second quarter as the team went on a 25-6 run.
Kendyl Brewster hit a 3 early in the second quarter and Kaleb Buck finished the run with a steal and lay-up, giving the Dragons a 35-12 lead early in the second quarter.
“We’ve had a lot of games in a short period of time, because of a make-up game. Three of those were buzzer beaters and really emotional, so we had the day off on Wednesday and a light practice on Thursday,” Mendence said. “This was more about getting our legs back in and finding that mojo. We wanted to go out and play like we always do which is hard, all-out and full of effort no matter who the opponent is. We didn’t do that so much in the first quarter, but after that it was smooth sailing.”
The Dragons’ offense continued to score in droves and the defense locked down the Pumas, forcing numerous turnovers and allowing only six points in the second quarter, as Pepperell took a 52-18 lead into halftime.
Pepperell used a lot of players in the second half, emptying the bench midway through the third quarter as practically every player recorded stats in the game.
Five different players hit double digits in scoring with Landon Lockwood leading the effort with 17 points and seven rebounds. Sophomore Evan Rhodes had a big second half, draining three 3-pointers and tallying 16 points and seven rebounds.
Brewster finished with 14 points, Rogers finished with 11 and Goggans added 10. Carmelo Brown tallied nine points and six rebounds, while Alex Rhoades added nine points.
The win moves the Dragons to 10-11 overall and 5-7 in region play with two big region games coming up this week which starts with a home game against Chattooga on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.