Alabama Christian looked to make a move in the Area with success against MA Tuesday night, but the visiting Eagles won both games to move ACA down in the standings. The girls were never into the game and didn’t score their first basket until midway through the third period in a 13-40 loss to a very mediocre team. The Lady Eagles (9-9) could not handle the basic press from MA and looked to be doing their own thing on offense. In the first period, ACA missed all fourteen shots attempted, ten from the floor and four from the line, and trailed 0-8 after one. In the second, Katelyn Sutton finally got the Eagles on the board with 3:47 left in the half as she made one of two free throws to cut the score to 1-10. ACA would not score again in the half and trailed 1-16 at intermission. Alabama Christian missed all fifteen shots from the field while committing seventeen turnovers and making just 1 of 10 free throws.
Despite playing arguably the worst half in program history, ACA only trailed by fifteen and was hoping to regroup and play a better half of basketball. Unfortunately, the home team never even got the deficit to under fifteen in the half. Jaide Newkirk scored the first field goal with 5:10 left in the third and ACA trailed 9-28 after three. The fourth period was much the same as MA prevailed 40-13.
Jaide Newkirk led the anemic offensive attack with six points and added six rebounds and three blocks. Addison Smith was the team’s leading rebounder with seven while Katelyn Sutton’s three steals led the team.
The boys game followed the same pattern as Trinity just four days ago. ACA (13-6) was able to hang close for three and a half quarters, but the lack of depth once again proved costly down the stretch. In the fourth, the Eagles managed just three points and were outscored by ten. ACA jumped out early and led 13-5 with a minute left in the first when Tyree Saadiq picked up his third foul. Connor Mark and Darius Gardner combined for ten of the thirteen points to spark the offense. After Saadiq went to the bench, both teams scored once and ACA led 15-7 after one. For most of the period Saadiq’s absence did not adversely affect the home team. Alabama Christian led 29-22 with 2:32 left, but MA closed the half on a 13-0 run and led 35-29 at the half.
ACA was able to cut the lead to four, 43-47, late in the third, but it was as close as they were able to get. In fact, MA closed the third and began the fourth by scoring the next thirteen points to open a 60-43 lead with four minutes left. The final margin was eighteen points in the 46-64 loss.
Mac Moorer was the team’s top scorer with 13 points while Connor Mark added 11 with five assists and four rebounds. Darius Gardner led the team with 10 rebounds while Tyree Saadiq recorded three steals.
Alabama Christian continues Area play Friday night as they play host to St James.