Gilmer High’s unblemished region record continued last week as two more teams fell to the Lady Cats.
GHS was on the road Tuesday at Heritage and buried the Generals early to come away with a 49-32 victory. The Cats hosted the Ridgeland Panthers Friday, and the visitors were out of the game shortly after tipoff as Gilmer strolled to a 69-24 win.
GHS is 9-0 versus Region 6-4A opponents and 14-5 overall.
“It was very good to get that road win, and we’ve had few and far between wins at Heritage,” coach Susan Nunn said. “We went in knowing we wanted to put a lot of pressure on their guards and try to mix in different pressure defenses. We were pretty consistently successful with it so I was very pleased with how the game plan played out.”
Gilmer’s defensive tactics resulted in fast break points. The Generals fouled often in transition, and GHS shot 16/20 from the free-throw line.
“Their guards had a little trouble handling it (pressure),” Nunn said. “We kept switching it between a full-court press to a three-quarter press where we’d back it up then push it forward. We kept trying to put them off balance, and we got several steals off it. We were also able to draw a good number of fouls in transition.”
HHS only scored two points in the opening quarter and eight in the second, and the Cats led 26-10 at halftime. Gilmer maintained its game plan in the second half and continued to look inside first when forced to set up its half court offense.
“They did not have big girls who could handle our big girls on the inside very well,” Nunn noted “We kept kicking it inside, and as they collapsed on us, we’d kick it out. So we got some good short looks and good looks from outside as well.”
The Cats’ lead swelled to 37-16 entering the fourth where Heritage had its most productive quarter, but it was not enough to overtake GHS.
Post players Elly Callihan and Jalynn Ledford scored 17 and seven points, respectively. Bailey Teague finished with nine and fellow guard Beth Burnette added eight.
The game versus Ridgeland was a runaway victory. GHS led 17-9 after a quarter and 40-9 at the half. It did not get any better for RHS in the third where Elly Callihan scored 13 of her team-high 27 points. Burnette hit a pair of three pointers, and Teague added four more points.
Ahead 64-16, the final quarter was shortened because of point differential.
Joining Elly Callihan in double figures were Emma Callihan with 12 points and Burnette with 11. Jasmine Staley added seven, Teague scored six, both Ledford and Lark Reece tallied two and Anne Elise Williams had one.
GHS traveled to Pickens at press deadline and will be on the road Friday at LaFayette for a 7 p.m. game.