Decatur Girls, Boys Lose To Lovett

Tuesday afternoon, Decatur’s girls basketball team finally made the state’s Class AA top 10, though it became evident a few hours later they’re not quite ready to join Georgia’s elite.

Fifth-ranked Lovett, on the other hand, has arrived.

Using a balanced scoring attack and a man-to-man defense that thoroughly choked off the paint, Lovett beat the seventh-ranked Bulldogs 54-38 at the Decatur High arena.

For Decatur coach Bill Roberts, who prior to tipoff was awarded a cube-encased basketball celebrating his 200^th career victory, the game’s eventual outcome wasn’t a complete surprise.

“[Lovett’s] a seasoned team,” he said, “with outstanding bigs (6-1 Sydney Umeri and 6-2 Christen Johnson) and they’ve added two starters since last year. I think there’s no question they’re double-digits better than us right now. But remember, this is early December and we have a long way to go.”

Tuesday didn’t go any better for Decatur’s boys. Playing without starting point guard Kurt Robinson (slight ankle sprain), Decatur dropped a 52-37 decision to Lovett, its third straight loss.

Junior Cordele Jackson scored 13 points, the highest total of his career while Davante Meadows added 10. But the Bulldogs, 3-3, couldn’t overcome atrocious shooting. They made 16 for 56 from the field for 28.6 percent (the second straight sub 30 percent game) including 1 out of 22 three-point attempts (4.5 percent).

The girls game was decided in the last five minutes of the first half. Decatur trailed only 13-10 when Jahmee Alford-Reeves hit a layup with 5:40 left until halftime, but then Lovett ran off 16 straight points.

At one point during that run Decatur made turnovers on five consecutive possessions leading directly to five baskets.

One of Lovett’s newcomers, point guard Taylor Brown scored nine of her 12 points in those final five first-half minutes including a run-out at the buzzer to make it 31-12 at halftime.

But Brown, who may be Lovett’s best player, appeared to severely sprain, or possibly break her ankle two minutes into the second half and may be finished for the season.

Tatianna Jackson scored 13 for Lovett while Umeri had nine. Decatur’s Queen Alford led all scorers with 20 points while Jordan Dillard, on a sub-par night, scored only 10, all in the second half.

Decatur did have a fine second-half surge, cutting it to 39-31 with 6:34 left in the game. But over the next three minutes Lovett went on a 11-2 tear, officially putting tthe game out of reach.

“This is the first real test we’ve had,” said Roberts, whose team is 5-1. “Basically they exploited our main weakness, which is lackadaisical passing. Now our kids know what we need to work on to beat good teams. And there’s no question we will get better and better.”

Both Decatur teams play again Friday at Maynard Jackson, the girls at 5:30 and the boys at 7 p.m.