The two girls’ teams with the best records in District 14-AAA squared off Friday with an upset on Munford’s mind and clinching a number one tournament seed on Covington’s.
Munford entered the contest at 13-11 overall and 6-1 in the district, a half game back of Covington (19-8, 7-0).
In a game marred by 38 turnovers and spotty free throw shooting, Covington prevailed 40-31 to secure the top seed in next week’s tournament.
The offenses were stagnant all game. CHS led 9-5 at the end of the opening period and 20-7 at the half. Despite winning the second half 24-20, the Lady Cougars could not overcome the deficit.
Munford’s Roshondra Gooden led the Lady Cougars with 10 points and Brezia Cooper added nine.
Cor’Tayza Flowers scored a game-high 23 points for Covington and Alana Whiten contributed nine. No one else scored more than two.
The Covington-Munford boys regular season round two had all kinds of tournament seeding implications. Haywood, Ripley, Munford and CHS have all been “beating up on each other,” as one of the coaches put it.
The Chargers, sitting atop the standings two weeks ago at 3-1, dropped their third straight District 14-AAA contest 66-57 to fall to 10-11 overall and 3-4 in district play with one game to play.
The Munford Cougars hit the floor with their eyes on the bucket. They pushed the tempo in the first period and ran out to a 10-2 lead in the first period. CHS closed the margin to five at period’s end. On the strength of a 14-4 run early in the second frame, Covington finally got its first lead 28-25 on a Holden Warmath 3-pointer at the 4:58 mark and held on to take a 39-36 lead to the locker room.
It was all Cougars in the second half. Munford won the third period 14-5 and never let the Chargers get closer than four the rest of the way.
D’Camron Hayes had a game-high 24 for the Cougars. Holden Warmath paced CHS with 20. Jayden Lee had 11 for Munford and John Mason scored 12 for Covington.
The District 14-AAA tournament tips off at Covington on Feb. 17 and continues through Feb. 22.