By: Logan Maddox
The Cedartown Lady Bulldogs opened their region schedule on Friday night with a big 49-36 win over the Cartersville Lady Canes, and followed that up with a comeback to cap off the first week back from the winter break.
For Cedartown, the story of the game was defense.
Despite the offense’s inabilities to score at times, the Lady Bulldogs defenders swarmed to the ball and forced tough shots all night long, assisting in the 13-point victory.
Cartersville trailed 11-6 after the first period and 24-18 at halftime. The Lady Canes were able to create a short-lived comeback in the third before the Lady Bulldogs once again extended their lead to 6, leading 33-27 heading into the final interval.
The Cedartown girls were able to withstand a tough attack from Cartersville in the opening minutes of the fourth period.
Initially, the Lady Bulldog offense stalled, but Keke Turner proved to be a catalyst to start the scoring for Cedartown. The sophomore scored a dozen in the fourth, helping put the win on ice, 49-36.
Keke Turner led all scorers with 14 points and 7 rebounds. Her sophomore counterpart, Qiana Watson, added 12 points as well. Additionally, Marycille Brumby scored 8 points, hitting 2 three-pointers and grabbing 7 boards. Kam Frazier scored 5 points, and Tamera Beeman netted 11 rebounds and added 5 points. Ava Allred connected from long-range and Zoe Diamond Paisley made a layup in the win.
Then on Saturday, Cedartown were able to pull off a big win on the road to stay ahead in region play.
The Cedartown Lady Dawgs put together an all-around impressive performance over the LaGrange Lady Grangers.
Despite being winless against LaGrange since region realignment prior to the 2016 season, Cedartown’s girls were able to pull off a 52-44 triumph.
The Lady Dawgs trailed much of the game, being down 21-20 at halftime and 35-30 heading into the final interval. However, the offense woke up in a big way in the fourth period, scoring 22 while yielding only 9 to the Lady Grangers.
Sophomore guards Keke Turner and Qiana Watson combined for 15 points in the final few minutes of the game, making smart decisions on offense and capitalizing on opportunities from the free-throw line; this duo proved to be the difference down the stretch of the game and undoubtedly were big parts of Cedartown securing a win.
Keke Turner picked up a double-double in Saturday’s game, finishing with 15 points and 10 rebounds. Tamera Beeman came just shy of a double-double, as she scored 14 points and grabbed 9 rebounds. Qiana Watson was also in double digits in scoring, adding 13 in the victory. Marycille Brumby had an even 7 points and 7 rebounds, and Kamryn Frazier grabbed 5 rebounds while scoring 3 points on the day.
The win pushed the Lady Dawgs to 8-3 overall on the season and 2-0 in region play.
Next up for Cedartown’s girls is another region matchup on Tuesday, as they will travel to Carrollton to take on Central. This will be the biggest test for the Lady Dawgs thus far in region play, as Central is 12-1 on the season, with their lone loss coming in overtime against Bowdon. Central is also 2-0 in region play with wins over Cartersville and LaGrange.