On Thursday the Lady Eagles got a mouthful of how the other half lives as they chomped all over Tech, flattening their visitors, 58-7.
“I told [the girls] we did what we were supposed to do,” head coach Michael Roberson said. “We were supposed to win that game and we did. It wasn’t pretty all the time. Sometimes we looked brilliant and other times we looked sloppy, but it gave us a chance to work on some things we wanted to work on going into the second half of the season.”
Walker Bell led the way for the Lady Eagles with 19 points, followed by Emily Willingham, who scored her 16 points deep in the paint area, helping the team present a stout inside/outside game on the evening.
The Lady Eagles got their first points on a five-foot jump shot from Willingham just over a minute into the game, but it was promptly answered by Tech. Excel then went up 5-2 on a 3-pointer by Bekah Bell, followed by two deuces from Willingham, one after a steal, for a 9-2 lead. Walker Bell added the next points through a steal and a foul shot, completing a 3-point play the old-fashioned way. A 5-0 run made it 17-2 at the end of the quarter.
Excel then scored 15 unanswered points in the second quarter and six more in the third quarter — a 26-0 run — before Tech would add to its total, the scoreboard finally reading 37-4 well into the frame. The score after three complete quarters was 56-4.
In the final period Excel hit one of four shots while Tech sank a 3-pointer, accounting for the final score of 58-7.
Roberson said the game should keep his Lady Eagles from getting rusty during the holiday break.
“We needed to play today because we start our sub-region play next week, and I didn’t want to have such a long layoff between our last game, Gordon Central, and starting out sub-region play with Bremen next week,” he said.
He said some players got some experience in other roles, as well:
“We got to play Bekah Bell at point guard. That’s important. Catie got to play on the wing a good bit. We got some post (play) in there and everybody got to play.”
Also scoring for Excel were: Abby Keefe, 4; Metcalf, 2; Bekah Bell, 4; Elise Miller, 3; and Miriam Hibbard, 10.
With the victory, Excel improved to 4-6 overall on the season. They play in Region 6A-A.
The Lady Eagles kick off their sub-region play their next outing when they host Bremen on Tuesday.
Tipoff is at 6 p.m.