AJHS basketball: 8th grade girls still undefeated

Overall, the Junior Knights coaches feel good about the progress of their teams but there’s still a lot of work to do and in some cases, some sickness to get over.

• 8TH GRADE BOYS

Arab 41, Priceville 35

Down 28-27 after three, the Jr. Knights got a much-needed home win last Thursday by outscoring the Bulldogs 14-7 in the final frame.

“We’ve had a pretty tough schedule to open up this season and it was difficult to

put together four good quarters,” said coach Jason Guger. “We’ve just needed to find a way to win at the end and we did that tonight.”

Bryson Trussley had 14 points for Arab, Chase Miller had 11, Trey

Parker six and Ty Criscoe five.

Arab 36, Sardis 18

The Knights led 12-0 after a quarter and were on cruise control for the better part of the game.

“It was good to play before a good home crowd and give them something to cheer about. We started with a pretty tough schedule and our guys played well from beginning to end,” said Guger.

Davis Kinney had 10 points, Parker and Chandler Moore had five each and Dallas Helton had four.

Douglas 27, Arab 22

The game was tied at the end of three, but it was the Eagles who pulled out the clutch win.

“Defensively, we were right where we want to be, but we

didn’t shoot the ball very well tonight,” said Guger. Miller had six points, Parker five and Stafford Willis four.

• 7TH GRADE BOYS

Priceville 21, Arab 18

The Knights led by two after three quarters but couldn’t pull out the win.

“We turned the ball over a little too much and we’re not scoring very many points on offense,” said Guger. “We’ve got a lot of work to do with that group but they play hard and they’re anxious to learn.”

Tucker Willis led the Knights with eight points, followed by Brayden Davis and Eli Williams with four each.

Arab 40, Sardis 12

The Knights led 7-6 after a quarter but gradually pulled away to a 34-8 lead after three quarters. “We had really been struggling on offense and had been begging our players to step up,” said Guger. “It was good to see seven or eight guys put the ball in the hole tonight to allow us to spread the ball out more and not have to rely on just one or two players.”

Willis again led Arab with 13 points, Beau Blackburn had nine and Williams had five.

Douglas 44, Arab 30

“They had a very good team and we played them toe to toe in the first half,” said Guger.

Davis had eight, Willis seven and Williams six in the loss.

• 8TH GRADE GIRLS

Arab 50, Priceville 27

The Lady Knights wrapped up last week at 5-0 but it didn’t look like that was going to happen. The Lady Bulldogs jumped out to an 11-2 lead to begin the game before the alarm went off.

“We finally woke up,” said coach Donnie Weaver. “We looked kind of shocked the way things started but we called a timeout and got back together.”

That they did, as the Lady Knights went off on a 26-1 run to take charge of the game.

Weaver said his girls are playing well as a team.

“We’re just passing the ball really good right now,” he said.

Hailey Price led Arab with 11 points, Lela Hipp had 10, Millie Lackey eight, Jill Stapler seven and Lauren Lambert six.

Arab 44, Sardis 42

The Lady Knights remained unbeaten but it wasn’t without a challenge. Arab led 28-21 after three quarters.

“We needed a game like this to make us better,” said Weaver. “They pushed us to our limit, even though we made some bad turnovers and silly fouls that really hurt us in the end. We let them back in it but luckily were able to hold on.”

Hipp and Stapler had nine points each for Arab. Lackey had eight, and Haley Price and Lambert put in six each.

Arab 35, Douglas 1

The Lady Knights were expecting a good game, but instead got a walk through.

“It was a little surprising,” Weaver said. “But, I had challenged the girls to not have a letdown after the Monday game and they came out on fire early.”

All 10 players got playing time in this one. Price had 11 points and Stapler had 10.

• 7TH GRADE GIRLS

Arab 45, Priceville 17

Needless to say, the Lady Knights are playing well despite the season just getting underway. “We struggled at Boaz but had a good practice after that one and bounced back tonight,” said Weaver. “We shot the ball well and had good effort tonight.”

Madelyn Toth led Arab with 17 points, Della Beard had 10 and Alli Parker six.

Sardis 18, Arab 15

The Lady Knights were on the cold side Monday night.

“We had six girls out sick that were able to come back but were not in the best

condition,” said Weaver. “Some had not had much practice or playing time. We actually played hard and played good defense but we struggled to score.” he said.

Beard had six points and Kerrigan Stanfield had five in the loss.

Douglas 21, Arab 18

“Due to sickness, we were a little short-handed and we struggled to get in a rhythm,” said Weaver.

The Knights were down 20-9 after three quarters when it suddenly became go time.

“We had a couple of players really step up in the fourth quarter and gave us a chance to win,” Weaver said. “Della Beard and Krysten Tull got on fire defensively and crashed the boards.

“Della did a good job of getting to the free throw line, too.”

Beard had nine points and Madison Hartline had five while Tull pulled down 11 rebounds.