Webb dominates as Lady Patriots pull away

Tori Webb wasn’t going to let the game’s outcome remain in doubt long.

The junior put together a dominant third quarter, as the Homewood High School girls basketball team took down Center Point, 70-40, in a Class 6A Northeast Sub-Regional on Monday night at Homewood High School.

After already putting together a solid first half that included an and-one basket, a rebound putback and a fast break layup, she scored 11 of her game-high 20 points in the decisive third quarter. She put forth another and-one conversion, two more rebound putbacks, a layup, and finished the quarter with a dominant post move to boot.

The Lady Patriots took a 12-point edge into the locker room. Then Webb went to work, as Homewood burst out of the gates with a 19-3 run to essentially salt the game away before the final period.

“I told myself I needed to step up and I needed to get this done, and I did that,” Webb said.

Webb’s length proved too much for the opposition, with no better example than a first-half play where four Center Point players converged for a rebound and Webb used her 6-foot-1 frame and slightly longer wingspan to snatch the ball from the top of the melee.

“It is very beneficial for me,” Webb said of her length.

Of course, Webb did not do it alone. 11 Lady Patriots scored in the contest, with Ajah Wayne joining Webb in double digits with 11 points. Hannah Barber and Lia Roberson each scored eight, while Preschool Hood, Kayla Mikula, Kalia Cunningham, Kassidy Crawford, Zoe Watts, Kassidy Schnoer and Shelby Hardy all made a dent in the scoreboard.

With the win, Homewood advances to the Northeast Regional Semifinal, where it will face Brewer. The game will be played at Jacksonville State University’s Pete Mathews Coliseum on Friday at 9 a.m.

“All we can do is get better,” Webb said. “We will look at this film and see what mistakes we made and try to build off that.”

Homewood’s full-court trap gave Center Point fits from the get-go. The Lady Patriots capitalized on one of a handful of early turnovers, as Roberson drove to the hoop and found Wayne on a wrap-around pass for Homewood’s first basket of the evening.

Hannah Barber broke a 4-4 deadlock with back-to-back 3-pointers to bust the Center Point zone defense. Webb converted an and-one basket to put the Lady Patriots ahead 20-8 after a quarter of play.

Barber found Wayne for a nice reverse layup to get things going in the second quarter, but Center Point found its footing, putting together an 8-2 run to cut the Lady Patriots lead to single digits.

But Homewood responded with a 7-2 spurt of its own to end the half and take a 33-21 lead into the break.

In the third quarter, Wayne and Roberson canned 3-pointers to give the Lady Patriots the early momentum before Webb ripped off 11 of the next 13 Homewood points. Roberson added another 3 in the fourth quarter.

ShiCoryia Orr and Taylor Henderson each scored 10 points to lead Center Point, whose season ends with the loss.