Blue Devils split with Buford

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Tift County’s Donell Tuff dunks against Buford. Eddie Senkbeil/sgasports.net

December 8, 2012

Blue Devils split with Buford

Becky Taylor CNHI The Tifton Gazette Sat Dec 08, 2012, 09:20 PM EST

TIFTON — It was a tale of two halves for the Tift County Lady Devils against the Buford Lady Wolves, while the Devils got out to an early lead and kept a comfortable lead for most of their contest.

The first quarter saw Buford win the tip and it quickly looked like a runaway as the Lady Wolves raced out to a 4-0 lead off back-to-back baskets by center Kristina Nelson. The Lady Devils were not intimidated by the early deficit and soon tied the game at 4-all. The remainder of the first eight minutes saw the team nearly trade basket for basket with Buford taking the final points of the period to go up, 15-13.

Quarter two took a bit of time for either team to settle into a rhythm, with the offense for Buford feeling the effects of a Staceyanna Murrell block of a sure layup for Nelson.

From there, Tift would stay close but could only grab the lead for a brief moment after an Alexis Johnson three-pointer made it 21-20 midway through the quarter. The Lady Wolves would surge late in the half to bring their lead up to eight — 33-25 — when the buzzer sounded.

The surge would spill over to the third quarter as Buford started out on fire, pumping in three more baskets before the Lady Devils could respond. After that score, it would be four more minutes before they put another dent in the scoreboard. In the meantime, the Lady Wolves were in a defensive frenzy, causing numerous turnovers, pushing he score at the end of the third to 48-30.

The final stanza saw more of the same, with the Buford offense firing on all cylinders, pushing the lead to 20 only a few seconds into the quarter. From there, they were able to cruise to the 65-36 win.

For Tift County, DeeDee DeShazer led with 17 points and Alexis Johnson added 12 with nine rebounds. Buford’s offense was paced by MacKenzie Darrah’s 18. Kaela Davis scored 12 and Bree Horrocks and Anderson had nine.

The Buford boys started in similar fashion to the girls team. Austin Pickett’s basket made it a 6-2 lead, but the end result would be very different.

Kansas signee Brannen Greene gave the Devils their first lead with a basket at 5:25 in the first quarter. The Wolves would briefly see the lead again at 10-8, but after that the game belonged to Tift County. They slowly extended their lead, but put an early exclamation point on the night’s action when Tadric Jackson ended the frame with a spinning slam dunk to put his team up by 10, 26-16.

In the second quarter, Tift gave the gold and green Wolves too much Greene as he would scored nine in the period and rejected two shots in succession. He would end the first half with 20.

In the meantime, the rest of his teammates put up 12 points in the second and held their opponents to 11 to take a 47-27 halftime lead.

The early third quarter seemed to indicate a Devils blowout, but Buford was ready with defensive adjustments and were able to outscore their hosts, 20-16.

Tift County magic returned for the final quarter as they scored eight of the first 10 points and then threw in a Greene three-pointer for good measure. Buford would nearly match points with the Devils again, but in the end, Tift County would breeze to the 86-65 victory and to improve their overall mark to 3-0.

Greene’s 31 points were tops for both squads. He was aided by Jackson’s 15, Ladarius Stewart (12), D.J. Bryant (11), and Ali Vaughn (10). Buford was led by Isaiah Williams with 21. Kyle Doyle added 18 and A.J. Davis had 12.

Friday night The Tift County Blue Devils took a sweep from the host Bainbridge Bearcats.

The Lady Devils had a 17-9 lead at halftime after shutting out the Lady Bearcats in the opening quarter. They would use a big second half to extend their lead and take the win, 53-32.

Johnson paced Tift with 19. She had help from DeShazer with 12 and Brakia Bateman with 9.

Bainbridge stayed close with the Devils for the first half, but were outscored 25-5 in the third and 12-10 in the fourth as Tift cruised to a 78-50 lead.

Greene, playing only three quarters, scored 36. Jackson added 19 and Tuff scored nine.

The Devils next see action Friday night when they host Central of Macon. They will also host a doubleheader Saturday against Crisp County.

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