Arabia Mountain’s Sierra Burns (32) gets to the baseline past Miller Grove’s Antoinette Mountain (1). Burns had 16 points and 7 rebounds in the Lady Rams 65-33 Region 4-6A win on Tuesday at Miller Grove. (Photo by Mark Brock)
Senior night at Miller Grove High School had the home teams splitting blowout wins with Arabia Mountain in the regular season finales for Miller Grove on Tuesday night.
Girls’ action opened the night with the No. 7 ranked Arabia Mountain Lady Rams (17-5, 9-2) jumping out to a 14-1 lead in the first quarter and cruising to a 65-37 victory over the Miller Grove Lady Wolverines (4-17, 3-9).
Arabia’s Malaya Jones started the 14-1 run with back-to-back layups, one on a steal, to put Arabia Mountain up 4-0 in the first 1:04 of the game. A three-pointer by Jayla Thomas followed by two more layups by Jones made it 11-1 forcing Miller Grove to call a timeout.
Jah’Naesia Spiers layup on a pass from Myori Pruitt and a free throw by Jones made it 14-1 with 4:36 to play in the period.
The run was aided by the Lady Rams not allowing a rebound to Miller Grove until the 3:27 mark of the first quarter.
Leading 24-10 with 2:52 to play Arabia Mountain’s Sierra Burns scored eight points in a 9-0 run, including two three-pointers, as the lead expanded to 33-10. Miller Grove got a pair of free throws from Moet Felton and a jumper in the lane from Trinity Coleman to cut the disadvantage to 33-14 heading into the half.
Jones had seven points in an 11-0 third quarter run by the Rams that all but put the game away at 48-21 with 3:15 to play in the period. Miller Grove’s Arielle Gordon stopped the run with a pair of jumpers only to have Burns to answer with five quick points to send Arabia into the fourth quarter up 53-28.
Another big 10-0 run in the fourth quarter salted away the game for Arabia Mountain.
Malaya Jones finished the night with a game-high 21 points and Sierra Burns collected 16 points and 7 rebounds for Arabia Mountain. Trinity Coleman wrapped up the night with 9 points and 6 rebounds to lead Miller Grove with help from Antoinette Mountain (5 points, 6 rebounds) and Jaylen Clark (4 points, 9 rebounds).
Miller Grove’s David Brooks Jr. (10) goes in for a finger roll along the baseline against Arabia Mountain defenders Ramone Gibbs (21) and Lance Leonard (22). Brooks finished with 18 points in the Wolverines’ 56-28 win over the Rams. (Photo by Mark Brock)
BOYS: Miller Grove 56, Arabia Mountain 28
Following the Senior Night festivities, the Miller Grove Wolverines jumped to a 17-0 lead to start the game and never looked back on the way to a 56-28 victory over the Arabia Mountain Rams.
The Wolverines (14-10, 7-5) have struggled in the past couple of weeks with injuries to several starters and lost four of their last five games in Region 4-6A play, but got out of the gate fast against the Rams (2-21, 0-10) led by David Brooks Jr. whose basket with 1:59 to play made it 17-0. Jahmil Barber and Nicholas Burton had four points each in the opening run for Miller Grove.
An offensive put back by Andre Teague with 1:13 left in the opening period gave Arabia its first points of the night. Miller Grove’s Brooks and Arabia’s Major Johnson traded three-pointers in the final 21 seconds as the Wolverines took a 22-5 lead into the second quarter.
Xavier Lewis and Marion Hopkins had baskets to open the second period to push Miller Grove ahead 26-5 and Brooks drive for a basket with nine seconds left in the half sent Miller Grove into the half up 31-11.
Arabia Mountain shot 11 of 16 from the free-throw line in the second half and had just two field goals, both three -pointers by Brendan Rose as Miller Grove held the Rams at a distance the rest of the way.
Lewis followed a three by Barber early in the fourth quarter as the lead continued to build at 50-22 with 5:58 to play in the game.
David Brooks Jr. finished with a game-high 18 points to lead Miller Grove and Nicholas Burton chipped in 10 points and 7 rebounds. Marion Hopkins had four points and 9 rebounds. Brendan Rose had 8 points off the bench to lead Arabia Mountain and Andre Teague finished with 6 points and 5 rebounds.