Lady Pirates drop district opener to Pleasant Grove

By Jeremy Weber
jweber@campcountynow.com

A solid gameplan and a strong defensive performance were not quite enough Friday night as the Lady Pirates dropped their district opener on the road at Pleasant Grove, 44-40.
Full-court pressure and relentless man-to-man defense kept the 19th-ranked Lady Hawks away from their normal offensive barrage of three pointers but the Lady Pirates saw one slip away in the final quarter of a close matchup.
“We were really worried about their three-point shooting coming into the game,” head coach John Chatham said. “We were able to hold them in check pretty well, though. I felt like we had a good gameplan coming in and I feel like were very well prepared for this game. We just came up a little bit short.”
Denasia Watson and Ayanna Palmer led the Lady Pirate effort with 10 points each in the loss while Justonni Farmer had six points, Jasmine Walker, NaKyia Brown and Shaundrea Rhymes each scored four and Genesis Lopez added two points.
The Lady Hawks, who came into the game averaging nearly 10 made threes per game this season, were held to just 5-13 from three-point range by the Lady Pirates in the loss.
A pair of quick threes helped the Lady Hawks build an early lead as Pleasant Grove jumped out to a 15-11 lead after one quarter of play.
“We had a bad matchup defensively early in the game and they made us pay for it with a pair of threes,” Chatham said. “Pleasant Grove’s coach quickly saw that mismatch and he exploited it.”
 

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