DHS Girls Win, Boys Lose To Close Out Holiday Tournament

Nobody will ever mistake Decatur girls coach Bill Roberts for being laid back or a Phil Jackson-like Zen maestro.

Early Friday evening, the Brookwood gym practically empty, Roberts walked to midcourt, pumped his fist and said, “How ‘bout them Dogs!”

For clarification to those few remaining fans still milling about he added, “I’m talking about them Decatur Bulldogs.”

 No one can blame Roberts for his impersonation of a walking, talking billboard after his team’s 49-37 victory over perennial AAAAA power Collins Hill.

True, this Collins Hill bears faint resemblance to Maya Moore’s Collins Hill. Moore, the WNBA’s 2011 Rookie of the Year, led that school to three consecutive state titles and an 83-1 record from 2004 to 2007.

But this win, coming roughly halfway through the regular season, gives Decatur an 11-2 record.

The boys couldn’t duplicate the feat.

After leading by nine at intermission, Decatur saw its advantage evaporate, mostly because it couldn’t negotiate the 2-3 zone Collins Hill played in the second half. The Bulldogs couldn’t get inside while also missing seven of their last eight three-point attempts in a 54-51 loss.

Overall Decatur didn’t shoot that badly, 20 for 48 from the field for 42 percent. Kurt Robinson had 14 points (although all but two came in the first half), seven rebounds and six assists. Davante Meadows added 13 while Murad Dillard had nine.

The Bulldogs had two solid looks to tie. With 11 seconds remaining Meadows shot a wide open three on the left perimeter and didn’t come close.

After Collins Hill missed a front end of the bonus, Robinson scooted down court but instead of jumping straight up for a wide open 21-foot three, he flailed into his man trying to draw a foul.

The foul wasn’t called (the defensive man had position and his arms up) and Robinson missed badly as the final buzzer sounded, dropping Decatur to 5-8.

“It’s frustrating because we could’ve won all three games (Decatur lost two of its three Deep South Classic games),” Coach Charlie Copp said. “We’ve come tantalizingly close in a number of games. With our guys, I think the theme for [the season’s] the second half, rather than adding anything new, we have to get better at what we already do. One area where we definitely need to improve is executing [offensively] against a zone.”

 The girls never trailed in their game against Collins Hill, maintaining an 8 to 10 point lead throughout, with their largest margin the final one. Queen Alford had 19 points and eight rebounds, Jordan Dillard had 14 points and five rebounds and Ashleigh Rasheed had eight points (all in the first half) and five rebounds.

 Decatur shot 19 of 43 for 44 percent while Collins was 12 of 39 from the field (31 percent) and a woeful 11 of 23 (46 percent) from the foul line.”

 “It was a total team effort,” Roberts said. “I can honestly say we have an 11-kid rotation, because all 11 who played contributed big time.”

On Tuesday Decatur, after a three-week absence, returns to The Spike to play Cross Keys, the boys at 5:30 the girls at 7 p.m.

All this is prelude to Friday’s home showdown against Buford, which boasts number one rankings for both boys and girls. Buford’s girls will be playing without point guard and Tennessee bound Andraya Carter, one of the state’s best players, out with a torn ACL.

The Decatur girls are ranked seventh in AA.

“We can’t look ahead because we have one game [before Buford],” Roberts said. “But still, I can’t wait to play those folks.”