Girls Basketball: Keila Garner shines as Rich South pulls away Rich East

After holding on to beat Rich East 45-42 in its Thanksgiving Galaxy tournament, Rich South showed its full arsenal in a 66-45 rematch victory on Thursday night.

Rich South’s Kiela Garner, held scoreless in their first meeting, dropped a game-high 23 points and pulled down nine rebounds.

Nursing a four-point lead early in the third quarter, it took all of 20 seconds for Garner to show why she’s considered one of the area’s best. The senior guard pulled in an offensive carom and hit a contorting bucket in the lane. After a quick Rich East shot, Garner grabbed the rebound and raced the length of the court for a contested layup. With the basket, the Lady Stars (10-2, 3-1) were up 36-28 and cruised from there.

“It’s tough to pull her off the floor,” Rich South coach Brian Mays said. “She’s our absolute leading rebounder. We managed to squeak out the first game against (Rich East) when she didn’t score, but you see the difference she makes.”

Mays was pleased with his team’s point distribution, with 10 of his girls reaching the scorebooks. Twins DeAsia and CiErra Garret added 14 and 11 points, respectively. Post player Verneisha Anderson chipped in seven off the bench.

“Our bigs really gave us a boost by playing well tonight,” Mays said. “It might not look like a lot, but the seven points from Anderson really helped us out.”

Rich East (9-3, 3-1) fell behind 9-0 after giving up seven first-quarter turnovers, but the Rockets battled back within two behind the aggressive play of freshman Danielle King. Playing like anything but a first-year player, King registered 12 points and five rebounds and was fearless taking to the ball to the hoop.

Center Ashley Dennis added nine points for the Rockets.

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