By RANDY JONES
Wilson Times

 

WILSON — The Beddingfield girls’ basketball team wasted no time pouncing on 2-A Eastern Plains Conference visitor Washington on Friday night.

Freshman guard Jayla Bullock drained a three-pointer on the game’s first shot, beginning a 17-2 start for the Lady Bruins that featured an 0-for-11 start by the Pam Pack from the field and six turnovers.

Washington found its game for a moment, and led by Erica Hopkins scored the final eight points of the opening quarter to trail just 17-10.

It may have angered the Lady Bruins, as they turned up the defensive pressure to score the first 10 points of the second quarter — including six of senior guard Alexis Jones’ game-high 12 — to safely build a huge lead that eventually ballooned to a final 71-32 victory.

“We ran the court very well tonight,” Beddingfield head coach Debra Pegram said. “We got the ball in the right people’s hands over and over. Just sometimes we didn’t convert. But that gives us something to keep working on.”

Missed layups the rest of the second quarter kept the Lady Bruins, now 8-2 overall and 2-1 in the EPC, from pulling away.

The score was 33-15 after Washington’s Timia Ebrom scored a free throw with 3:31 to go. It was the only make in seven attempts by the Pam Pack in a three-minute span that saw Beddingfield go scoreless with four missed layups.

That’s when senior guard DeNisha Hooker took over, scoring the team’s final six points to push the lead to 39-17 at the break.

In the third quarter, shots started to fall for the Lady Bruins and on Jones’ layup off a steal by senior guard Courtney Miles they took their first 30-point lead at 50-20.

The lead grew to 55-20 on back-to-back inside scores by Dechanel Hinnant and Diamond Moody before a shot by Washington’s Shona Midgette ended a 4:37 Pam Pack drought.

“We played much better in the second half,” Pegram said. “I was really happy with the way we got out and ran and then put ball into the right players hands.

“I think Jazmine Harris had a great game tonight. Courtney was, well, the usual Courtney that we see. I think we had a little better effort with our man-to-man defense, especially with our helpers when we got beat off the dribble.”

Miles and Alexis Toney each had 11 points for Beddingfield. Harris had seven points and nine rebounds.

Hopkins led the Pam Pack, now 6-4 overall and 0-3 in league play, with 13 points.

Washington travels to Pinetown on Tuesday to take on Northside.