In the end, the final score was close, but Apalachee High school girls basketball coach Michael Parks was pleased with the win all the same.
The AHS Lady Wildcats held on for a 59-56 victory against their cross country rivals from Winder-Barrow Saturday. The win gave Apalachee its tenth victory of the season.
“It was a lot of fun,” Parks said. “We got to play in front of a packed gym against our rivals. That is what high school basketball is all about.”
The Lady Wildcats were paced by Porshia Cleveland, the team’s lone senior, who scored a team high 20 points followed by teammmate Lacreasha Mayweather with 16.
“We stayed persistent,” Parks said. “We would go down by five or six points but we continued to battle defensively. Porshia really took over. We were a little more confident out there.
It goes to show how much the girls wanted to win. We might not have been able to have done that in the past. It’s a sign of how much we have grown during the past year.”
Kiarra Stanford added 13 for AHS as the team benefited from a balanced attacked.
Mimi Hill led all scorers in the game as the Winder-Barrow senior scored 23 points.
“We missed some easy offensive opportunties,” said Lady Bulldogg coach Brenda Hill. “We didn’t box out on free throws and some mental mistakes hurt us. We have to keep working to get over the hump. Hopefully, it will sink in soon. I know part of it is our kids don’t play AAU ball like a lot of schools and they are missing out on that experience. We are not in that position enough. We just have to keep working at this point.”