Austin Road MS vs. Ola MS

4SHOT Sports

2008-09 Girls Hoops
Austin Road MS vs. Ola MS - Girls
By Larry "L.A." Williams
Feb 6, 2009, 05:00 EST

2009 Metro Middle School 7th Grade Championships

3rd Place Game

Austin Road MS “Lady Jaguars” vs. Ola MS “Lady Mustangs”

OLA MS captures 3rd place

Marshall’s free-throws win game

Henry County MS – McDonough, GA

Sydney Marshall drained 4 technical free-throws to win the game.

McDonough, GA – Austin Road MS appeared to be on their way to capturing 3rd place in the 2009 Metro Middle School 7th Grade Championships but two questionable technical fouls against the Lady Jaguars sent Ola’ Sydney Marshall to the line and she delivered like one of the best middle schoolers in the county should by calmly drilling all four free-throws to give the Lady Mustangs the win.

Ola MS jumped out to the early lead getting a three-pointer from Jurie Joyner. Austin Road, which was much quicker than Ola used full court pressure to forced the Lady Mustangs into several turnovers, one that resulted in a fastbreak lay-up by smooth Kharreyah Parris that cut the lead to 3-2. A few minutes later the Lady Jaguars would get two free-throws from Lauren McDonald to take a 4-3 lead as the quarter came to an end.

Ola’s Sydney Marshall looks like she is going to be a very good player in years to come; her rebounding and ability to block shots gave Austin Road lots of problems trying to score inside as the second quarter got under way. Alexis “Flash” Cornell scored on a lay-up to put Ola back in front 5-4. Marshall would score a pair of baskets to give the Lady Mustangs a 9-6 lead with 2:46 left in the half.

The action really picked up over the last two minutes; McDonald would hit two more free-throws and reserve Alexandria Brown-Jones would score to put Austin Road back in front 10-9. Joyner stepped up and drilled her second three-pointer of the game to give the lead back to Ola 12-10.

With time running out in the half Angel Lampkin from Austin Road scored on a lay-up that tied the game at 12-12 as the horn sounded to end the first half.

Kharreyah Parris is a young player to keep an eye on in the future,

Marshall continued to play well for Ola scoring two more baskets in the third quarter but she picked up her third foul and was forced to the bench. With Marshall on the bench the lane became wide open and the Austin Road players took full advantage, especially Parris who scored six points in the quarter as the Lady Jaguars opened up a 24-18 lead.

Parris scored to start the final quarter; teammate Amlin Sanders, another young player who you will be hearing about would score on a sweet move to the basket to push the Austin Road lead to eleven, 29-18 as it looked like the Lady Jaguars were going to pull away to an easy victory. I think the Ola players were even starting to feel that way at this point but we all know that the game isn’t over until the …… sings; well you know the saying.

Austin Road became a little too comfortable and started tuning the ball over; add to that the reemergence of “Flash”, Alexis Cornell. Regulated to bench duty much of the second half Cornell, who was probably the quickest player on the floor used her quickness to get to the basket and score a couple of hoops that cut the lead to 29-25 with 1:57 left on the clock.

Austin Road still appeared to have the game in hand but you could tell they were getting a little frustrated because they hadn’t scored in a couple of minutes. With 11 tics left Marshall scored to cut the lead to 29-27 as the Ola fans went wild.

Alexis “Flash” Cornell dribbles between two Austin Road defenders

Then it happened, one of the referee’s called a technical foul against a Austin Road player when she tossed the ball that hit the wall instead of handing the ball to the referee. Marshall would drill both technical free-throws to tie the game at 29-29.

A few seconds later THE SAME REFEREE calls another technical foul on another Austin Road’s player who apparently said something he didn’t like. I never got an explanation as to what was said. Marshall stepped to the line again and sank both shots again to put the Lady Mustangs in front. Ola took the ball out as the horned sounded giving them an improbable victory that captured 3rd place.

The Final Score:
Ola 31 - Austin Road 29

Scoring Recap:

Ola MS: Sydney Marshall scored 16 points to lead all scorers. Alexis Cornell added 7 and Jurie Joyner 6.

Austin Road MS: Kharreyah Parris scored 10 to lead the Lady Jaguars. Amlin Sanders added 8, Lauren McDonald 5 and Angel Lampkin chipped in with 4.