Tucker’s Adonis Green (with basketball) goes up against Lakeside’s Martin Haggray (45) during the Tigers’ 65-40 Region 2-6A win on Tuesday night at Lakeside. (Photo by Mark Brock)
The Tucker high school basketball teams made a short trip inside the Perimeter to Lakeside and came away with a sweep of their DeKalb County and Region 2-6A rivals.
The Tigers completed the sweep with a 65-50 win in the night cap fueled by Xavier Johnson (15 points, 13 rebounds) and Adonis Green (15 points, 10 rebounds) who both put up double-doubles in the victory.
The pair keyed a big 11-4 run to open the third quarter as the Tigers began to put double-digit distance between them and the Vikings (11-5).
Leading 35-28, Johnson opened the half with a basket inside and Green followed with a layup of his own. Amir Butcher and Johnson would trade assists to one another for easy layups as the lead ballooned to 43-30 with 5:47 to play in the period.
Green would follow 24 seconds later with an assist from Johnson for a layup and foul to get an old fashioned three-point play to make it 46-32.
The Vikings would get no closer than 11 points the rest of the game, a Sean Atwater drive with 2:15 to play in the third cut it to 49-38, but Kenton Eskridge’s three pushed it back out to 14 (52-38) with 2:00 minutes left.
Brandon Pope’s steal and basket to end the quarter sent the Tigers into the final period up 54-40.
Johnson opened the fourth quarter with another quick basket inside on an assist from Tyler Payne for a 56-40 lead. Payne would add a layup and hit one of two free throws to go with four from the line for Butcher as the Tigers continued to pull away in the final quarter.
Eskridge gave the Tigers a 20-10 lead with 6:21 left in the first half as he hit back-to-back baskets to open the second quarter.
A Bennett Fahsel three and two free throws cut the lead in half at 26-21 with 2:54 left in the first half. Atwater followed with a three of his own and his steal and basket with 58 seconds had the Vikings within four (32-28).
Tucker’s Trevon Flowers put a damper on the Vikings’ late second quarter rally with a three from the right wing to end the half with Tucker up 35-28.
Eskridge joined Johnson and Green in double figures with 10 points on the night as the Tigers improve to 3-0 in region play.
Atwater had a game-high 16 points to lead Lakeside and Fahsel added 10 (all in the first half). Martin Haggray and Jayvon Tate had 9 rebounds each for the Vikings.
(G) Tucker 61, Lakeside 30
Tucker’s Kierra Johnson-Graham (21) gets inside against Lakeside’s Anne Elizabeth Heyse (right) in the Lady Tiger’s 61-30 Region 2-6A win on Tuesday at Lakeside. (Photo by Mark Brock)
Bria Bass was the driving force behind a 19-2 run in the first quarter as the No. 5 ranked Tucker Lady Tigers pulled away from the Lakeside Lady Vikings for a 61-30 Region 2-6A victory to start the Tucker sweep over Lakeside.
Lakeside’s Maria Tobon had knotted the game at 2-2 with 6:42 to play in the first quarter, but Tucker would answer behind Bass’ eight points to go on the 19-2 run to blow open the game.
Najla Shamsid-Deen would start the run with a pair of free throws and add a layup a minute later as Tucker went on an 8-0 run which included a pair of offensive put backs by Bass.
Bass would add a layup on an assist from Kierra Johnson-Graham and a pair of free throws to go with a layup and a three-pointer from Jayla Morrow as the lead expanded to 21-4 with 2:46 left in the opening frame.
Kiarra Jackson’s basket with 4:01 to play in the quarter was the lone bright spot during the four-minutes controlled by Tucker.
Shamsid-Deen’s layup on a feed from Bass with 51 seconds to play sent Tucker into the second quarter up 25-5. Jada Reynolds would score all eight of her points in the second quarter, including an offensive put back with 11 seconds to play, gave the Lady Tigers a 45-13 halftime lead.
Bass would lead all scorers with 10 points in the game while Shamsid-Deen added 9 for Tucker (12-0, 3-0). Tobon and MaShayla Brown would hit for 8 points each to lead the Lady Vikings (7-9, 0-3).