Raiders unleash their fury against Tiftarea Academy
Published 1:03 pm Thursday, February 1, 2018
- Southland's Saige Batten goes up for a layup against Tiftarea. Batten scored 26 points in the Raiders' win.
By David Busman
AMERICUS – The Southland Academy Raiders (16-3, 4-1) took control of the game by outscoring Tiftarea Academy 18-7 in the second quarter and 29-2 in the third quarter on their way to a 67-21 route of the Panthers Tuesday night, January 30, at Southland.
Saige Batten led the Raiders’ attack, scoring a game-high 26 points.
“We were doing really well getting to the basket and closing out points”, Southland Head Coach Rundy Foster said. “We made our layups and free throws; getting all the easy points and having a strong defense led us to our victory.”
Southland’s Luke Law goes up for a shot against Tiftarea Academy.
photo by Sheri Bass
The game was actually very close in the first quarter, with Southland up 10-7 by the quarter’s end. However, the Raiders outscored the Panthers 18-7 in the second quarter to take a 28-14 lead at halftime.
The Raiders came on fire in the second half as Batten scored 18 points in the third quarter. The Raider defense shut down Tiftarea’s offense in the quarter, allowing the Panthers to score only two points. By the time the fourth quarter began, Southland had a 57-16 lead.
Southland’s defense held Tiftarea to just seven points in the second half.
The Raiders will now turn their attention to a rematch on Friday with Deerfield-Windsor (14-3, 3-2). In the last meeting between the two teams, Southland defeated the Knights 49-41 in Albany back on January 16. The rematch will take place at 8 p.m. Friday, February 2, at Southland Academy.
The Raiders will travel to Valdosta to take on Valwood on Tuesday, February 6 at 8 p.m. The last game of the regular season will be a home game against Brookwood at 8 p.m. on Friday, February 9.
