Norcross girls cruise in their 7A playoff opener

NORCROSS, GEORGIA – With a predetermined bracket, first-round playoff games can be tricky.

After winning the Region 7-AAAAAAA championship, the Norcross girls basketball team found itself matched up with a better-than-average No. 4 seed in Collins Hill.

But even that wasn’t close to putting the Blue Devils on upset watch.

After building a double-digit lead early in the second quarter, it never dipped below that mark again and the Blue Devils cruised to a 65-41 win to advance into the second round of the state playoffs.

The Blue Devils were led by Jania Akins, who finished her night with a game-high 25 points on five three-pointers. Tweedy Charlton joined her in double figures with 10 while Kayla Lindsey scored nine and Cadence Peterson scored eight.

“I thought it was a good first-round game,” Norcross head coach Ashley Luke Clanton said. “First-round games, you just never know what you’re going to get. So I thought they handled themselves well. We respected the fact that (Collins Hill) can get to the basket, so we worked hard on making sure that we weren’t giving up the middle. The kids did a nice job of that.”

The Blue Devils wasted no time in building a seven-point lead after the first eight minutes.

Akins scored 10 of her 25 points in the first quarter, matching the Eagles’ point total for the quarter. The Blue Devils led 17-10 heading into the second quarter.

Two possessions into the second quarter, the Blue Devils had its first double-digit lead following a Charlton layup.

The Blue Devil defense got a tick better in the second quarter, holding the Eagles to seven points on three field goals. With the Blue Devils continuing to score on offense, their lead increased to 18 points at the half, 35-17.

Akins continued to lead the team in scoring with 16 points at the break.

“It’s nice getting a little breathing room so you’re not sitting there sweating all game,” Clanton said. “But when you step into halftime, the tendency is for kids to say, ‘oh we’re up 20. We’re just going to coast through the second half.’ So we tried to make sure that we addressed that and that we knew we still had a second-half battle. Collins Hill was going to come after us and we had to be ready to scratch and claw and keep playing hard.”

Clanton’s pep talk to the Blue Devils at the half paid dividends in the third quarter.

The Eagles bounced back with 16 points in the third quarter, one point shy of their first-half total, but the Blue Devils were able to match them shot for shot.

Akins drilled two threes in the third quarter and Lindsey scored five of her nine points in the period to keep the Blue Devils out in front by 17 points heading into the fourth.

“We gave up too many points in the second half, but we scored the ball well,” Clanton said. “Anything they came at us with, we were able to come back with. That made it a little bit easier.”

With any hopes of a comeback thwarted in the third quarter, the Blue Devils put together another good quarter, scoring 15 and holding the Eagles to eight. Their lead remained over 20 points for the last five minutes before going on to win the game by 24.

“She shot the ball well,” Clanton said of Akins. “The kids share the ball well and they did that tonight. It’s fun basketball to watch. They had the confidence to put it in the bucket. You had some kids score big that usually score big, but I thought everybody else did a really nice job of doing their jobs.”

With the win, the Blue Devils will play host to Lambert in the second round of the playoffs. Lambert beat North Cobb 52-38 Wednesday night to advance.