The top-ranked Tucker basketball girls team got 20 points from Jayla Morrow and used its size advantage inside to dominate No. 9 Woodstock 74-60 in the Class AAAAAA quarterfinals Thursday at the University of West Georgia.
Morrow scored six points in the first quarter as the Tigers (26-4) took control after trailing 4-0 in the game’s opening minutes.
Tucker led 33-20 at halftime and maintained a double-digit lead throughout the second half. Woodstock had several chances in the final three minutes to cut the lead to less than 10 points, but the Wolverines could never get a key basket, and the Tigers pulled away down the stretch.
Tucker got 34 points from its inside game of 5-foot-10 Bria Bass, 5-11 Quinian Hughes, 5-10 Chiqueria Cook and 5-7 Mariya Trimble. That came at the expense of Woodstock’s perimeter-oriented game, which was at its best when it was able to get out and run. When the tempo picked up in the second half – the teams combined for 81 second-half points, compared to 53 in the first half – Woodstock was able to stay within reach.
Although Tucker’s inside game made the difference, the points came from a lot of sources as eight players scored at least four. Bass finished with 15, Najla Shamsid-Deen had 12 and Trimble finished with eight.
Tucker was playing without first-team all-region player Kierra Johnson-Graham, who sat out with an injury.
Kennedy Montgomery led Woodstock (26-4) with 19 points, and Chandler and Ashton Sutton had 14 each.
Woodstock led 4-0 on a layup by Chandler Sutton and two free throws by Montgomery, but Tucker responded quickly, scoring 12 of the game’s next 13 points for a 12-5 lead.
Morrow scored 10 points in the first half, with most coming on short jumpers from the right baseline. Tucker eventually built the lead to 31-12 before Woodstock closed the first half with an 8-2 run to cut the deficit to 11 points.
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