he DeKalb West Bulldogs and Lady Bulldogs played host to Southside Thursday night, and took both games much to the delight of the hometown crowd.
DeKalb West Lady Bulldogs 31
Southside Lady Saints 17
The Lady Bulldogs were determined to make a statement and they did, outscoring the visiting Lady Saints in all four quarters.
It was a big third-quarter surge that cemented a win for DeKalb West as they worked inside with Aniston Farier and Madison Martin scoring four points each and Emma Martin hitting for a bucket to boot giving the Lady Bulldogs a 27-14 advantage after three.
“We played much better tonight, we rebounded and played defense better than we have in several other games,” said Lady Bulldog Coach Cindy Pulley. “We made some shots we’ve been known to miss in the past and we’re improving in every game. I was really proud of the effort they gave tonight.”
The Lady Bulldog D stepped up and held Southside to three points in the fourth, securing a victory.The Lady Bulldogs spread the ball around with Farier leading DeKalb West with a game-high 11 total points followed by Madison Martin with seven, Emma Martin five, Summer Crook four and Tess Burton was good for two points in the contest.Lady Saints Cameron Langley and McKinzie McDonald led the Southside tally with six points apiece.DeKalb West Bulldogs 38Southside Saints 26
With only five points separating the Bulldogs and the Saints going into the fourth quarter Thursday night at DeKalb West, it came down to who wanted it more and when push came to shove, the Bulldogs rallied for the win.Lebanon played a good game all evening, patiently waiting for a chance to penetrate the Bulldogs’ zone defense by passing the ball well. Some drives took almost two minutes for the opportunity for the inside shot.Down 28-23, the Saints stuck with the conservative approach as the clock wound down, meanwhile the Bulldogs drove the paint with tenacity led by Jathan Willougby with game-high 14 points. Maintaining the lead in the fourth quarter, Brayden Antoniak and Isaac Brown both scored four points each while Willoughby added two more and the Bulldogs secured the win by keeping Southside’s inside shot to a minimum.“I expected them to push the ball more, that’s why we kept on changing defenses trying to keep them out of sync,” said Bulldog Head Coach Kelly Pyburn. “We did a good job on stopping the players we wanted to stop. We didn’t do a good job on securing the ball after a rebound. We did not box out well but other than that we played fairly good defense, good enough for the win. We did really well finishing tonight. We still have a long way to go but our posts stepped up and overall we played a good game.”Lucas Hale came through in the clutch, scoring six of his nine total points in the second quarter and tickling the twine in the third for three more. Hale seemed to make his shots at just the right time to keep Southside off balance.Besides being top scorer, Willoughby was instrumental on the boards, along with Brown who worked hard on both ends of the court.Rounding out the Bulldogs scoring was Brown with eight points, Antoniak four, and Nathaniel Crook was good for three points by dialing long distance in the second quarter.DeKalb West travels to Dibrell today in a rare day game. Game time is 11:30 a.m.
