GIAA girls region tournament: Stratford stays dominant, advances to region title game

For a while, the team on the verge of 20 wins was getting quite the battle from the team on the verge of 10 wins.

“We knew John Milledge was going to play hard,” Stratford head coach Ed Smith said. “Every time we’ve played them this year, they’ve been really well prepared. Defensively, they’ve given us a lot of trouble.”

Soon enough, though, Stratford gave more trouble back and began pulling away with a strong close to the third quarter en route to a 67-42 win Thursday night to reach the GIAA District 6-4A/3A championship game.

Stratford will take on Piedmont on Friday at 7 p.m. at FPD, with the consolation at 3:30 p.m. with Mount de Sales and John Milledge.

The Eaglettes and Cougars split, Piedmont winning 62-55 at home and Stratford taking a 70-68 buzzer-beater 17 days later.

The Eaglettes (21-2) led John Milledge (9-15) only 12-11 after one, but picked things up on both ends in the second quarter, outscoring the Trojans 15-7 for a 27-18 lead at halftime.

“Couple of fighters punching each other in the body really good,” Smith said of the early stages. “We knew we needed to get the ball inside, inside out. We were settling, we were giving up too soon on the game plan.”

Stratford won the two regular-season meetings 52-35 and 46-33 in January, 17 days apart. The latter game was tight entering the fourth quarter.

This time, Stratford started pulling away late in the third quarter, turning a 10-point game to a 17-point one with a 7-0 run in the final minute. The teams muddled through the early minutes of the fourth quarter until Stratford got some juice and finished strong led by nine points from Shannon Smith, who finished with 12.

Camiyah Hudson had a normal inside-outside game and topped Stratford with 17, while Kaliya Walker added 15 and Da’Laila Lowe had 12.

Senior Lucy Elliott topped the Trojans with 12 points while freshman Pierce Moore had 10.

“We made a conscious effort to get the ball inside out,” Smith said of the second-half improvement. “Get the ball inside to Camiyah, inside to Kaliya. We got a few buckets early in the third quarter, and got it up to 16, 17.

“John Milledge kept fighting back. But we kept it above 10 until we were able to really open it up in the third quarter… We got up 17, and that’s a tough hole to climb out of.”

Piedmont 59, Mount de Sales 37

Midway through the second quarter, the scoreboard was showing something unexpected: it was a one-possession game.

Mount de Sales was playing the top seed mighty tough, especially after losing both legs of the season series 71-38 and 77-40.

But Piedmont (23-4) finally started looking more like Piedmont late in the first half 17 days apart and kept it going in the third quarter to slowly pull away.

An 8-0 run in the final 57 seconds, sparked by 3-pointers on consecutive possessions by Kylee Keck, ended with a runner from Sarah Ellen Stroud as time ran out for a 26-18 halftime lead.

It was a seven-point game with 5:57 left in the third when the Cougars picked it up again, starting with a 3-pointer from Keck, Piedmont getting bombs along the way from Emily Whitwell and Marissa Holder en route to a 41-24 lead midway through the quarter.

Mount de Sales, which lost 71-38 in the rematch four days later, trailed 42-28 entering the fourth, but couldn’t mount any further rally.

Holder led Piedmont with 23 points on an off afternoon shooting, while Keck added 17. Kennadi Lightfoot and Kenzie Jordan each had 10 for the Cavaliers.