Straughn girls beat TRM 54-19, regional bound

It might’ve taken a few minutes, but overall, it didn’t take long for Straughn’s girls to take control of their game against T.R. Miller on Thursday night.

SHS outscored TRM 12-0 in the first period and went on to capture a 54-19 victory in the Class 3A South Sub-Regional at home to secure a berth to play in next week’s regional tournament in Dothan.

“We’re glad to be moving on,” SHS coach Scott Kinsaul said. “I really don’t think we played particularly well (Thursday night). We missed a lot of shots we usually make, and free throws weren’t very good.”

With the victory, second-ranked Straughn advances to play Daleville, who beat Barbour County 50-29 last night. SHS plays at 9 a.m. on Thursday at Dothan’s Civic Center in the regional semifinals.

Early on, SHS couldn’t get in any sort of rhythm on the floor as it missed easy shots, and made turnovers.

After Emily Wood got an assist to Jacie Williamson for the first points of the game, everybody took a deep breath and got to work.

Williamson later found Katelyn Kinsaul low to push it to 4-0, and Janelle Nurse added back-to-back 3-pointers to give SHS a 10-0 advantage in the first period.

Paige Taylor, who was dominant on the inside — both on offense and defense — got the ball to Brentley Armstrong at the start of the second period for a 14-0 lead. Wood then converted on a long jumper and SHS led 16-0 with more than six minutes left in the first half.

Straughn’s Kristen Peavy found Derriunna Gantt later on for a 20-0 lead after a good series of passing from the local team.

T.R. Miller’s Steely Ruzic, who led her team with 10 points, got a 3-pointer with 3:33 left in the first half to put her team on the board.

Kinsaul then got a 3-pointer off of an assist from Williamson to garner a 25-3 lead.

TRM’s Akilah Brazil got a layup to go to help start a 6-3 run going into halftime.

SHS led 28-9 at the break.

Kinsaul started the second half with a 3-pointer for SHS, and then got an assist to Williamson for a layup and a 33-9 lead.

Ruzic drained a jumper, and a 3-pointer at the 2:11 mark to cut the lead to 33-14.

Throughout the contest, Williamson and Taylor dominated the boards on both ends of the court, and recently reached a milestone that was celebrated at the end of the game. Both have recorded more than 500 rebounds in their career.

Earlier this season, Williamson went over 1,000 career points.

“I updated the stats and realized they passed it during the season,” Kinsaul said, but this being our last home game, I wanted to recognize them tonight.”

Straughn’s bench got to see a lot of playing time last night.

Harley Adcock got a good assist to Peavy, who laid it in for a 39-14 advantage at the end of the third period.

Williamson nailed a 3-pointer midway through the fourth for a 47-14 lead, and the starters let their teammates get some good playing time.

TRM’s Karmaiya Jenkins answered with a trey of her own to spark the Brewton team.

SHS freshman Ashley Hughes, who was one of two players to make both free throws from the line, drained two with 2:48 left for a 50-19 lead. Adcock scored the other two with 50.6 seconds left, and added a layup off a steal to close the win.

Kinsaul led SHS with 13 points. Williamson had 12 points; Nurse chipped in nine; and Adcock had seven.

Kinsaul said the crowd, again, was great last year.

“We wanted to them and we appreciate it,” he said.