East Bladen’s Aaliyah Monroe (2) spins and scores against West Bladen on Wednesday in a non-conference high school girls’ basketball game.
Sonny Jones / Bladen Journal
East Bladen’s Ariel Cromartie (4) looses control of the ball as she drives against West Bladen’s Amiya McCarty (22) and Abigail Dew (21) during Wednesday’s game.
Sonny Jones / Bladen Journal
West Bladen’s Saniya Martin (20) grabs an offensive rebound as East Bladen.
Sonny Jones / Bladen Journal
East Bladen girls’ basketball coach Patty Evers has been concerned about the way her team has started games recently.
Wednesday night, inside Ken F. Cross Gymnasium, the Eagles players put those concerns to rest.
East Bladen scored the first 27 points in a 46-11 victory against county rival West Bladen in a non-conference game. The victory came one night after the Eagles had a physical battle against Union in a 61-47 Carolina Conference win.
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“The intensity has been better than the last two games,” Evers said. “They needed to come out with some kind of intensity, with more energy than we’ve had, and look for each other, find the right combination to play together and knock down some shots.
“It’s more about our defense than it is anything. I was happy with the way they came out tonight,” Evers said.
Ariel Cromartie had 16 points and eight players scored for East Bladen (12-2).
Kali Allen made three 3-point fields for West Bladen (1-10).
It was the 30th straight win for East Bladen in the series since West Bladen posted its lone victory in 2013, 52-41.
“I was happy our sophomores got in and got to play,” Evers said. “I’ve seen a lot of growth out of them and I’m hoping that they can come off the bench in bigger games and give us some good minutes. We’re going to try it and I think they can do it.”
Cromartie scored eight points and Aaliyah Monroe had five to help East Bladen bolt to a 20-0 lead at the end of the first quarter.
A basket by Ellen Battle, 3-pointer by Niyah Wooten and a layup by Cromartie off a pass from Tyliah Freeman put the Eagles ahead 27-0 in the opening minute of the second quarter. West Bladen got on the board with 6:44 left before halftime on a layup by Haley Taylor. East Bladen led 39-5 at halftime.
Freeman’s bucket to start the third quarter pushed the East Bladen lead to 41-5 and resulted in a running clock for the remainder of play. The teams combined for only 13 points in the second half.
EAST BLADEN (46) — Aaliyah Monroe 8, Ellen Battle 6, Ariel Cromartie 16, Tyliah Freeman 5, Julia Flowers 1, Sana’a Singletary 2, Nia McKoy 5, Niyah Wooten 3, Gracey Edwards.
WEST BLADEN (11) — Haley Taylor 2, Harmony Richardson, Kali Allen 9, Hadley Dove, Saniya Martin, Abigail Dew, Amiya McCarty, Natalee Sykes, Abigail Diciccio, Logan Powers.
Sonny Jones can be reached at [email protected].