BASKETBALL: Trinity girls race past Sherwood, into quarterfinals for matchup with No. 4 EBA 

The Trinity Lady Crusaders played their fourth consecutive state playoff game against a school ending in ‘wood, and also took a second-straight opponent to the woodshed, as they opened the GIAA tournament Tuesday night with a 73-41 thumping of Albany’s Sherwood Christian. 

Though their play wasn’t as razor sharp as the previous Friday in a 42-point consolation game win over Gatewood to close out the region tourney, it was plenty good enough to overwhelm a solidly-built opposing squad that was not equipped to  put points on the board at nearly the same rate. 

Trinity took off and ran with its first lead late in the first quarter, and never looked back on the way to another mercy rule-shortened win. 

The Lady Crusaders will challenge No. 4 seed Edmund Burke in the state quarterfinals Friday at Macon’s Stratford Academy, with tipoff set for 3 p.m. 

Brinley Vinson, with 23 points, Maddie George, with 19, and Maddie Grace Alligood, with 12, all reached double-figures, though Chloe Rozier and Addie Kendrick, following closely behind the leaders with eight and seven points respectively, likely did just as much or more to help Trinity keep up a breakneck pace of play that sent the game on a snowball’s path once it turned during a very active four-minute stretch early in the opening half. 

Up until that point, the speed was quite modest, and definitely not to the Lady Crusaders’ liking as they searched out an offensive rhythm, and allowed Sherwood to set the tempo for the first six. 

The Eagles, whose length at all five positions definitely favored a slower, more physical style of game, didn’t seem to be uncomfortable running the floor, and, in fact, pressed it up the court against Trinity’s full-court defense on a number of opportunities. 

But as the game wore on, Sherwood’s more limited offensive range (with 17-point scorer Ellie Beck its only consistent finisher) and tendency toward turnovers began to stick out more and more. 

Things changed on a dime once Trinity suddenly hit the accelerator. But that didn’t happen until after a methodical six minutes of the first quarter, in which Sherwood stayed in front by leads of 2-4. 

Vinson singlehandedly dug the Lady Crusaders out of their early slump with baskets to make it an 8-6 game just before Rozier carried back a fumble to tie the score. 

And all of a sudden, things took off. 

Baskets and turnovers came one on top of another for Trinity as Maddie Grace Alligood, in short order, buried a 10-foot jumper for its first lead. Maddy George added a triple to stretch the edge to five a couple possessions later. 

Another basket helped the Lady Crusaders close the quarter with nine unanswered points. And they picked up where they left off in the second to make it 15-straight on another 6-0 run. 

A Beck 3 broke up the rally, but Trinity responded with six more rapid-fire points, and was soon up by as much as 20. Several misses from point-blank range kept things from getting further out of hand sooner, but the six points of Rozier, and eight each of George and Vinson, helped the Lady Crusaders outrun Sherwood 24-14 for a lead of 17, 39-22, at the half. 

The Eagles cut back into it a bit more early in the third, as Aziah Harrison scored three of her five in the first few minutes to briefly slim the number down to 14. 

But Trinity was too much to keep up with over the full eight minutes, and put the game completely away with 28 points, against their 10, to lead by a count of 67-32 and shorten the fourth to six minutes. Sherwood led 9-6 the rest of the way.