Achille got off to a quick start in building a double-digit first quarter lead and held on the rest of the way to stop Bennington, 28-23, in a Bryan County showdown for the Bennington Tournament championship on Saturday night.
The victory was the Lady Eagles’ sixth straight, knocking off Fort Towson and Boswell on the way to the title contest.
Gracie Holt scored four points and Blaire Burgess and Trinity Barnes each canned a three pointer in the opening frame in staking Achille to a 12-2 lead through one frame. Bennington answered by outscoring the Lady Eagles over the next two stanzas, trimming the deficit to 23-20 heading to the fourth quarter.
Holt added four of the five Achille points in the final frame, but they held the Lady Bears to just three in the period as well.
Hermione Hagood pitched in a team-high 12 points with Holt also hitting double figures with 10. Burgess and Barnes tallied three apiece.
Bennington had solid balance in the low-scoring contest, topped by Sierra Reynolds’ six points. Michelle Minyard and Jolisa Cook tossed in five apiece, Kendallynn Campbell had four and Sofia Campbell scored three.
Calera notches two sweeps
Calera rode a pair of strong performances by both girls and boys teams to sweep Class 3A Atoka and Lone Grove in early season battles.
The Lady Bulldogs, who currently sit 11th in the Class 2A rankings, toppled a solid Atoka squad, 52-40, before rolling at Lone Grove, 61-40.
It was a pair of big efforts by the Calera boys in stopping Atoka, 61-50, and Lone Grove by a 45-38 count.
On the girls’ side, Calera doubled up Atoka 18-9 in the first stanza and then held a solid Wampus Cat squad at bay for the final three periods thanks to a balanced offensive showing.
Taylynn Conder and Amariah McLaughlin each posted 12 points, Carlaysia Brown had 11, Taibree Melton scored 10 and Emma Daniel tossed in seven.
Facing Lone Grove, Melton erupted for a season-high 22 points in fueling the win as Calera held a scoring edge in all four quarters.
Conder notched 15 points, Brown had 11 and Daniel scored 10.
For the Bulldogs, junior Logan Bumgarner was the offensive catalyst in both outings, including a whopping 32 points against Atoka. Many of those came in a huge third quarter in which Calera had a decisive 23-10 scoring edge.
Zaiden Craige ended with 10 points, Eason Humphers had eight, Gavin Chaffin added seven and Nathan Ford tallied four.
The road victory at Lone Grove saw the Bulldogs grab an early 17-12 advantage and maintained that margin throughout.
Bumgarner led three Calera double figure scorers with 22 points. Humphers contributed 11 and Craige had 10.