Piedmont Basketball Teams Earn Sweep
It was a clean sweep for the Piedmont Academy basketball teams Tuesday against visiting Mount Pisgah.
The Lady Cougars earned their first win of the season with a 59-19 victory. Bailey Myers paced Piedmont with 15 points followed by Mandi Pulliam with 14 and Diana Hardy with 11.
“We finally started executing some things we had not been doing in previous games,” Piedmont basketball coach Chip Champion said. “We played well for all four quarters. We still need to get better because we have one of the top teams in the region coming in Friday.”
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The Piedmont boys continued their impressive start with a 58-44 win. The Piedmont boys are now 3-1. Taylor Marsh scored 21 points while Ben Worthen added 14.
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“It was a solid team effort,” Champion said. “We had several guys step up.”
Piedmont actually trailed 14-8 after the first quarter before outscoring Mount Pisgah 21-8 in the second.
Prior to Tuesday’s game, the Lady Cougars had their most productive offensive output of the season last Saturday against Trinity. The Piedmont girls fell to Trinity Lady Crusaders 71-41 as part of the Trinity Tip-Off Tournament.
“To score 41 points without Mandi was impressive for us,” Champion said.
“We actually led after the first quarter and were down just five at halftime. We got into foul trouble in the second half and simply ran out of players.”
Tucker finished with 11 points for Piedmont while Ashton Sanders scored nine and Hardy added eight.
The previous night the Lady Cougars fell to Windsor 46-27. Hardy finished with 10 points to lead Piedmont followed by Heather Lewis with eight.
“We played much better in this game even though the score might not indicate it,” Champion said. “We didn’t play well in the first or third quarters and that was the difference.”
The Lady Cougars fell to Flint River 38-15 on Dec. 2. Champion said his team simply faced a stronger opponent that night. Pulliam was injured in this game and the loss of one of its top players hurt the Piedmont team.
Lewis, Hardy and Tucker each scored four points.
Prior to Tuesday’s game against Mount Pisgah, the Piedmont Academy boys began their season with a 67-64 win against Flint River. Marsh scored 18 points for the Cougars while Worthen, Andrew Fisher and Doug Raynor each added 13.
“If we can get four players in double figures every game we will be in good shape,” Champion said of his boys’ team season debut.
Trailing by seven in the fourth quarter, Fisher made a three-pointer late in the game to give the Cougars a one-point lead. Raynor then sealed the win with two free throws.
The Piedmont boys let one slip away last Friday against Windsor during the Trinity tournament. The Cougars fell 64-53 despite leading by eight points going into the fourth quarter. Marsh and Worthen both scored 16 points while Fisher added 12 against the AAA Knights.
“Once things started to go bad, they really fell apart,” Champion said of the Windsor contest.
The following night the Cougars rebounded with a 36-29 win against Trinity. Worthen finished with 10 points and Fisher totaled nine.
“Trinity made a run late in the fourth quarter, but we held them off,” Champion said.
Trinity outscored Piedmont 17-9 in the final eight minutes.
The Piedmont Academy basketball teams will return to action Friday when they host LaGrange beginning at 6 p.m. The teams will then travel to Fullington Thursday for games beginning at 3:30 p.m.