BASKETBALL: Givens goes off, East Laurens girls put a cool 70 on Coosa in first-round win

One Lady Falcon was honored for scoring her 1,000th career point a week earlier, and another became a third of their seniors to reach the career milestone, as East Laurens cruised pass Coosa in a first-round victory to open the GHSA state playoffs Tuesday. 

The night was a special one all-around for the team in its return to the Eastside after beating Dodge County to capture the region 2-High A championship Saturday night. 

Recognitions of Brenda Tanner, who joined twin sister McKayela in the school’s 1,000-point club during last week’s region tournament game against Bleckley County, and Jayla Givens, who did the same with the first several of her team-leading 25 on Tuesday, gave East Laurens plenty to celebrate in addition to its 70-26 win to advance, as it easily took care of business in the continuation of some outstanding play on both ends of the court. 

The fifth-seeded Lady Falcons will be back at home in the second round of the tournament Friday, matching up with either No. 12 Fitzgerald or No. 21 Bremen, who were not set to play their first-round game until Wednesday. 

The Lady Falcons remained in top offensive and defensive form, and after smoothing out some early wrinkles, also in perfect synchronicity as they took off and ran with the game late in the first half. 

“We started to pull away at the end,” said East Laurens head coach Danielle Lowther. “At the beginning, it wasn’t where we needed it to be. But we started to pull away at the end, and I think they started to get a little tired in the fourth quarter.” 

Givens, who seemed to be scoring every other trip down the court, accounted for over a third of her team’s points with 25 to go along with six rebounds as the senior made some memories in addition to a huge impact inside on the special night. 

“She was impressive,” Lowther said. 

Scoring in the paint seemed as easy as throwing it inside to both Givens and Deanna Lowther, who added an additional 10 points and seven rebounds. Both were set up by some first-class floor vision from their guards, whose long-distance passes in full, and half-court situations were as much highlights as the baskets on the end of them. 

McKayela Tanner supplemented a double-double of 14 points and 12 assists with seven steals. Brenda Tanner scored 11. 

The early first half was no struggle, just not as crisp as hoped as Coosa came out with some full-court pressure that the Lady Falcons managed well, but had to hike their way through to set up the offense. 

The Lady Eagles scored the first two points, and East the next eight with three Givens baskets mixed into the opening exchange. 

The Lady Falcons’ defensive pressure was in full effect from the get-go, as they took the ball a variety of ways and places on the court, and the rate of capitalization on turnovers steadily increased as they searched out the early groove. 

Coosa hit a 3, and kept up with the Eastside pace to keep the home lead to 19-10 after the first. The pattern continued into the second, along with some Falcon conviction pushing the ball upcourt, with some artistic passing by both Tanner twins, though not all their dimes to the middle came up with points in several early sequences where the gears of the offense weren’t quite in alignment. 

Still, McKayela hit a 3 and Brenda a lay-in to help push the Lady Falcons in front by a count of 25-18 with three minutes to go. 

Then came an enormous surge. 

The Lady Falcons emerged from a timeout with six unanswered points, including a Brenda 3, to run the lead to 32-18 in a span of about 60 seconds. 

McKayela then took a steal to the basket to make it nine-straight, and a 34-18 lead, before finding Givens inside on two tremendous assists. The first, a lob to her fronted teammate inside, yielded the layup that got Givens’ career total to quadruple digits. Another, the next time down, found her on a rope from midcourt for a basket to add on. 

“We were waiting on that moment,” Lowther said. “She’s been talking about 1,000 points for the longest time, and now she’s got it.” 

Givens, to cap off the scrapbook half, jabbed one away for a turnover that set up East’s last possession. After sharing the ball on some passes, she opened up from 18 feet to bank in a jumper about 12 seconds from the horn to conclude a 17-point first half. 

The field goal also finished off East’s 15-0 run into halftime for a lead of 40-18. 

The Lady Falcons paused before heading into the locker room as both Brenda and Givens were recognized for their 1,000-point attainment at midcourt. Both were presented Black and Gold game balls and banners to commemorate the achievement. 

Both four-year starters join McKayela, who eclipsed 1,000 last season, as members of the exclusive society of East Laurens players. 

“It was awesome to see all three seniors accomplish that,” Lowther said.  

East Laurens, for the most part, picked up right where it left off on the other side of intermission. After giving up a single point at the Coosa foul line, the Lady Falcons tore off on a run just as dominant to continue pulling away. 

Brenda bombed a 3 straight into the heart of the basket to close off an initial 9-0 sequence, before six more unanswered points preceded the next Coosa basket. 

In all, the Eagles were held to just three in the entire period, and the Lady Falcons were up 58-21 through three. They outscored Coosa 12-5 in a six-minute fourth. 

The latter two-thirds of the night contained some basketball as seamless and impressive as East Laurens has played all year. Lowther hopes her team can play some of that from the start of games going forward in the postseason. 

“We’ve got to make sure that we’ve got the right mindset coming in,” Lowther said. “That first quarter, we didn’t play up to my expectations, especially defensively, and sometimes on the offensive end, because I felt like we didn’t pass the ball, and make that extra pass. But they’ve gotten their feet wet in the state playoffs, so we should be OK going forward.”