Gilmer Lady Buckeyes Roll to 56-36 Win Over Spring Hill

GILMER — The Gilmer Lady Buckeyes closed out the first half of District 16-3A play by dominating the Spring Hill Lady Panthers, 56-36, Friday night at Buckeye Gymnasium.

Senior Jasmin Jones racked up 15 points, nine of which came from the charity stripe, and four rebounds, while sophomore Jameekia Homer scored 11 points to add to her nine rebounds and three blocks.

Eight of Jones’ points came in the fourth quarter, which fueled a Lady Buckeye 10-0 run.

“We really came into the game tonight wanting to pressure Spring Hill,” Gilmer coach Cody Christenberry said. “They’re down a couple of kids due to injuries so we really felt like we could pressure them and hold them to one shot. We had to use our size to control the boards and I felt like we did that pretty well.”

Freshman Christian Brown chipped in with 11 points, three rebounds, two assists and two steals in the Gilmer victory.

“At the beginning of the third quarter I told the girls that we expected a tough push from Spring Hill and we really needed to take care of the ball and not give them those easy shots. We got a few turnovers right in a row and let them get a couple of buckets on us so I just pressed the fact that we needed ball control more than anything,” Christenberry said.

With 5:23 left in the third quarter, Spring Hill looked to get back in the game forcing three consecutive Gilmer turnovers which resulted in points for the Lady Panthers. However, their push was not hard enough. On a steal and bucket by Jones, the momentum shifted back toward the Lady Buckeyes where it would stay for the remainder of the contest.

“We lost to Bullard by two at home in the first district game. We didn’t do a good job of rotating on defense the last time we played them and we gave up a lot of easy shots,” Christenberry said. “They had an eight-point lead and we pushed them at the end to get within two, we just can’t wait so long to get going and we really need to control the ball and close out on their shooters.”

Audrey Popelar had a game high 17 points for the Lady Panthers to go with her two blocks and one steal. Ashlyn White chipped in with 11 points, three rebounds and one steal.

Gilmer travels to Bullard next Tuesday to kick off the second round of district play.