Seventh year of 2024 summer basketball “playdate” in Albany wraps up
ALBANY, GA – The seventh annual “Girls only playdate” wrapped up at Monroe High School on Wednesday, which saw six teams compete against each other throughout the day.
The games were two halves with 16 minutes on the clock, and free throws counted as two or three points depending on the foul.
Up first was Tift County taking on Westover.
The first half was a hard-fought battle, but Tift’s full court press smothered the Lady Patriots, as they held them to 11 points by the half. It would be much of the same in the second half as the Lady Devils would secure the 43-25 win.
The next matchup was Westover versus Monroe.
The paint was the Lady Patriots’ best friend as they scored over half of their points inside. Westover saw a lead as big as seven as they would get the win over the Lady Tornadoes 33-28.
The Golden Tornadoes were right back in action as they hosted Colquitt county for the 6 o’clock matchup, and this was considered the game of the night.
The lady packers dished the rock like Steve Nash as they made fundamental plays all night, but only held a one-point lead by halftime. Monroe’s KJ Acree’s timely buckets would not let her Lady Tornadoes lose, however, as she and Monroe edged out the Lady Packers 45-41.
The next matchup we had was Dougherty County going up against Tift County. It was the Tift show too as the Lady Devils cruised to an easy win, as they looked like Duke University playing hard-nosed defense.
The final matchup was Dougherty versus Terrell County.
In the first half you would’ve thought Dougherty was going to blow them out as they held the Greenwave to just four points, but the second half was when this game got intense like a playoff matchup.
Dougherty got a critical steal in the last seconds of the game, and making the layup as they would narrowly get the win 24-22.
It was an intense day all around for every team, and these coaches know how important it is to play against different schools, especially during this time of the year.
“I appreciate Coach Acree for putting this together so that we have an opportunity to play against different teams to see where we’re at,” Dougherty head girls basketball coach Khadijah Ali said. “It’s a good indication of where we’re at. I think they also feel that we’re a better team now, so just got to keep working and got to keep getting better.”
