By BY BRUCE HIXON – SPORTS EDITOR
Both the Brewton Middle School Lady Tigers and W.S. Neal Middle School Blue Eagles had little trouble completing season sweeps of their Murder Creek rival Monday at East Brewton.
The Brewton girls used a 15-0 run to down the Lady Blue Eagles 25-7, while the W.S. Neal boys had a 19-1 run in the second half to top the Tigers 31-7.
The victory by the Lady Tigers (4-1) quickly got them back on track after the program had a 13-game winning streak snapped at Escambia County last week.
Brewton surrendered just one field goal and only two points to W.S. Neal (0-7) through the first three quarters although it took the Lady Tigers a while to pull away.
Buckets by Courtney Jones and Taylor Guthrie along with a free throw by Leah Brundidge got the Lady Tigers off to a 5-0 first quarter lead. A bucket in the final 30 seconds of the frame by Athena Davis would be W.S. Neal's last and only points for the next 14 minutes.
A pair of field goals by Guthrie in the second quarter extended Brewton's lead to 9-2 at halftime. That lead grew to 20-2 by the end of the third quarter thanks to a pair of hoops by Jones, a basket and free throw by Natalie Neal and one bucket each by Adrian Gibbs and Brundidge.
The run did not end until there were just over four minutes left when W.S. Neal's Jakeshia Hunter snapped the stretch with a field goal.
W.S. Neal's boys scored the game's first eight points, which turned out to be all they needed. Much like the Brewton girls, it took a while for the Blue Eagles (5-2) to hit their stride.
Buckets by Kenny Kiser and Ashton Elliott gave W.S. Neal a 4-0 lead through one quarter and field goals by Kiser and Quinton Burnett in the first two minutes of the second quarter doubled the lead to 8-0.
Brewton (1-4) was kept off the scoreboard for the first nine minutes of the game until Darrion Salter scored on a fastbreak. That hoop plus one at the first half buzzer by Jaren Jackson were the only points the Tigers scored until the fourth quarter.
The Blue Eagles, who led 12-4 at halftime, extended their lead to 19-4 by the time Brewton scored again thanks to a pair of buckets by Kiser and a three-pointer by Percy Travis.
Travis banked home another three-pointer in the fourth quarter. W.S. Neal also got buckets by Burnett, Kiser and Joseph Adkins in the final frame to extend its lead even more.
W.S. Neal's next action is today when it travels to Jay, Fla. Play starts at 3 p.m. with the girls game. Brewton returns to the hardwood Thursday when it heads to Flomaton. That action gets started at 4 p.m.
Girls
Brewton 5 4 11 5 - 25
W.S. Neal 2 0 0 5 – 7
BREWTON- Guthrie 6, Jones 6, Brundidge 5, Brown 3, Neal 3, Gibbs 2
W.S. NEAL- Askew 3, J. Hunter 2, Davis 2
Brewton 0 4 0 3 – 7
W.S. Neal 4 8 7 12 - 31
BREWTON- Woods 2, Salter 2, K. Jackson 1
W.S. NEAL- Kiser 14, Travis 7, Burnett 4, Adkins 2, Campbell 2, Elliott 2