Sports
St. Pius, Lakeside Girls Roll to Victory, Look Ahead to Important Week
With the win, the Lady Golden Lions maintained their perfect region record. Snowy weather could force games to be rescheduled this week.
' girls basketball team snapped a two-game losing streak with a dominant 45-27 home win over region rival Riverwood on Friday night. The victory keeps the Lady Golden Lions' undefeated Region 5A-AAA record intact heading into Tuesday's critical matchup with fellow division leader North Atlanta, unless inclement weather forecasted for the metro area causes rescheduling.
Riverwood (9-7, 2-2), which would have tied St. Pius with a win and now drop to 2-2 in the region, were rarely in contention against the hosts, who built a 14-5 first-quarter lead that grew to 28-18 at halftime.
"Defensively, we had as good an effort as all year," said Lakeside coach Kyle Snipes. "We played with a level of intensity and effort that we were able to put together all four quarters."
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Aarika Znosko led St. Pius (9-5, 3-0) in scoring with 9 points, closely followed by Anna O'Donnell and Sydni Payne's 8-point haul. By the end of the third quarter, St.Pius' points advantage stood at 20, thanks to a host of turnovers.
"A lot of times our defense feeds our offense and we got some easy baskets with turnovers," said Snipes, who refused to get away with the margin of victory. "We don't get caught up in margins. We've got to win those games in the region."
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Looking ahead to the North Atlanta fixture, the coach was keen for his players not to change their pre-game approach.
"We don't want to change any game differently. When you start doing that, you start playing inconsistently," he said. "I'm happy it's at home, but it's still really early in the region."
In other basketball action, 's girls (1-8, 0-5) picked up their first victory of the season on Saturday night, crushing Druid Hills 72-46 a day after suffering a heavy 76-14 defeat at Redan. And in a rare winning sweep, the Lakeside boys (3-8, 1-4) erased the disappointment of Friday night's last-gasp loss at Redan with a comfortable 76-60 win over Druid Hills. By contrast, the St. Pius boys (1-12, 0-3) continue to struggle following losses to Riverwood and Mount Pisgah, 63-43 and 53-38, respectively.