Lady Bears fall to Peach County despite resurgent second-half effort

WARNER ROBINS — In a rematch from Dec. 5, the Peach County Lady Trojans (2-5) beat Houston County (0-9) 41-28 despite a second-half surge by the Lady Bears.

The offense wasn’t plentiful, but Peach County hit enough outside shots in the second to turn a five-point first-quarter lead to 14 at the break.

Whenever either team got the ball into the paint the other swarmed, and poor ball security led to turnovers via steals or a loose ball rolling out of bounds.

HoCo stumbled more on offense, though, scoring only two points in the first quarter and six in the first half. They managed to get some open jumpers from moving the ball or attacking a close out, but they couldn’t them to fall.

But they came out in the second half with more energy and senior Alaina Coley took the game over to put the Lady Bears within striking distance entering the final period.

“I told them their defense is good…our goal was to hold [Peach County] to 10 points a quarter,” HoCo head coach Dani Wright said on her halftime message. “But at the end of the day you got to make a basket. So I was like, y’all gotta be scorer now. And not only that, we really talked about rebounding. I think they did much better in the second half on rebound and head hunting someone and trying to find it and go get that ball.” 

Coley had 10 points in the quarter alone and 17 total by taking advantage of Peach County’s turnovers.

If she didn’t have the ball into her hands she leaked out behind the defense for it before getting a shot wherever she wanted.

She hit a pair of three-pointers after feigning a fast break drive to the basket and she was able to drain a few more shots in the period to breath life into a HoCo team itching for their first win.

“Coley’s such a good kid. She’s such a good leader on the floor,” Wright said. “If I could have 10 kids like Coley. Her hustle, her drive, and to be honest she’s unbreakable…She is like Iron Woman is what I call her. She just helps us in so many ways…and I’m so very proud of the young woman that she’s becoming.”

The Lady Trojans didn’t give up the game and hit timely shots to maintain some distance, but with Lily Brzezicki’s fast break layup to cut the deficit to five the HoCo bench lost their minds, jumping out of their seats and screaming in celebration.

HoCo tried to maintain their momentum in the fourth quarter, and though they maintained some of their energy, Ta’nya Owens hit a three to push Peach County’s advantage to 32-23 with 6:34 left in the game.

The teams each scored five points in the next four minutes, but Lady Trojans senior Monnay Jones got a deep triple to fall with 2:23 left for the dagger.

UP NEXT

HoCo has a quick turnaround, with their next game against Southwest-Macon coming on Saturday at 10 a.m. as a part of the Day 2 Bear Brawl schedule.

Peach County follows shortly after the Lady Bears, facing Valdosta at 11:30 a.m. on Saturday.