No. 13 Archer girls earn bounce-back win against Newton

LAWRENCEVILLE, GEORGIA – There’s nothing quite like a bounce-back win.

After suffering a heart-breaker Tuesday night on the road at Grayson, a game Archer lead heading into the fourth quarter before ultimately falling in overtime 57-54, the Tigers got to take their frustrations out on Newton Friday night.

The No. 13 ranked Tigers overwhelmed the Rams from the opening tip and dominated their way to a 69-21 win to improve to 16-4 on the season and 6-2 in Region 4-AAAAAAA play.

Taniyah McGowan (11 points), Maerah Whitehead (10 points) and Courtney Nesbitt (10 points) all scored in double figures for the Tigers while 11 players in total scored at least two points.

On a night where victory was never in doubt, Archer head coach Lamar Harris was still busy coaching up his team with only one week left in the regular season.

“We’ve just got to learn how to slow it down when the time comes,” Harris said. “Sometimes we play too fast and get out of control. I think we’re a pretty good team when we play. We just have to play for four quarters that hasn’t been the case as of yet. I always say that you have 25 practice games. After that, hopefully we understand what it takes and understand what we have and we’re able to execute.”

It was easy for the Tigers to fall into the trap of playing fast in the first half. They forced Newton into turnover after turnover and the Tigers were busy attacking the basket.

Despite turning the ball over eight times themselves, the Tigers still managed to score 40 points in the first half and held a commanding 40-7 lead at the break.

Their most impressive stretch in the first half was a 25-0 run that spanned over eight minutes.

The run started when Taj Hunter knocked down a layup to give the Tigers an 8-2 lead midway through the first quarter and ended after Nesbitt stole a pass and converted it into a fastbreak layup to extend their lead to 33-2 midway through the second quarter.

The Tigers started to catch fire late in the first quarter with them leading 8-2. Nesbitt knocked down a pair of layups, as did Kyndall Collins and Kyndall Sessoms. All four baskets were on consecutive possessions following four straight turnovers by the Rams.

Archer helped force Newton into 17 turnovers in the first quarter and nine more in the second quarter. Of those 26 first-half turnovers, 14 of them led to points on the other end for the Tigers.

The Tigers managed to do virtually all of their damage in the first half without shooting the long ball. They only knocked down two three-pointers in the first half.

The second half was much of the same. Archer didn’t score quite as much and Newton managed to knock down a few shots, The Rams got the majority of its offense from freshman Zoey Jackson, who scored all eight of her points in the second half.

Archer extended its lead to 54-16 after the third quarter and went on to win by 48 points.

Their three-point attempts got even scarcer in the second half. Not needing to shoot three’s with the game well in hand, the Tigers didn’t convert a single second-half three-pointer.

Of their 29 made shots from the field, 27 were via the two-point variety.

The Tigers will now gear up for a huge rematch against No. 3 ranked Brookwood next Tuesday. They lost the first matchup 70-49 and while a win won’t move the Tigers into first place in region play thanks to their loss to Grayson, it would give them some much-needed confidence heading into the upcoming region tournament.

Grayson is the host site and the Tigers will either enter the region tournament as the No. 2 or No. 3 seed.