Arabia Mountain’s Iyania Kitchens (with ball) went up for a layup against Southwest DeKalb’s Adrienna Thompson (23) in fourth quarter play of the Lady Rams 64-52 Region 5-5A win. (Photo by Mark Brock)

The Arabia Mountain Lady Rams outscored the Southwest DeKalb Lady Panthers 13-2 in the final 2:36 of a 64-52 Region 5-5A girls’ victory at Arabia Mountain.

Arabia Mountain, ranked No. 7 by Sandy’s Spiel and No. 8 by the AJC, improved to 12-1 overall with its 11th consecutive victory and atop the region standings at 5-0 (Lady Rams are now 13-1, 6-0 after a win against Chamblee on Saturday).

The two teams were tied at 38-38 at the end of the third quarter and after five lead changes in the first 2 ½ minutes of the fourth quarter the Lady Rams took a 51-43 lead on Alina Shoemake’s drive to the basket with 5:41 to play.

Southwest DeKalb (7-10, 4-1) which had trailed by as much as 20 points (27-7) in the first half once again rallied and Jayla Kimbrough’s basket finished a 7-0 run to pull her team within 51-50 with 2:36 to play.

Iyania Kitchens, a University of Mississippi signee, got inside for a layup with 2:27 to play to get the Lady Rams rolling on a 13-2 run. It was Kitchens’ ninth point of the third quarter.

Marissa Mills got an offensive rebound, layup and was fouled with 54 seconds to play. She hit the free throw to give Arabia Mountain a 60-52 lead.

Mills would add three more points in the final 33 seconds to help close out the 64-52 victory.

Iyanna McMillan hit for 13 first half points as Arabia Mountain built a 27-7 lead with 5:56 left in the first half.

The Lady Panthers answered with a 14-1 run to end the first half led by Michaela Bennefield’s seven points to close the gap to 28-21 at the break.

Benefield would hit for three more points in the first 2:15 of the third quarter as the gap dropped to 30-28. Arabia Mountain’s Shoemake would hit one of two free throws at the end of period to send the teams into the final period knotted at 38-38.

Mills led Arabia Mountain with 18 points, McMillan added 17, Kitchens 11 and Shoemake 10.

Benefield finished with a 13-point, 10-rebound double-double and Adrienna Thompson added a 10-point, 10-rebound double-double of her own for Southwest DeKalb.

Arabia Mountain’s Jordan Sterling (23) goes in for 2 of his 11 fourth quarter points against Southwest DeKalb’s Demarion Johnson (3) in the Panthers’ Region 5-5A win. (Photo by Mark Brock)

(B) Southwest DeKalb 62, Arabia Mountain 52
A 21-6 start to the game helped the Southwest DeKalb Panthers pick up a 62-52 Region 5-5A boys’ win over the homestanding Arabia Mountain Rams last weekend.

Southwest DeKalb (12-5, 4-1), is ranked No. 3 by the AJC and No. 4 by Sandy’s Spiel in Class 5A, got six points in the first quarter by James Glisson III to jump out to a 16-4 lead heading into the second quarter.

Demarion Johnson who had an offensive put back in the final seconds of the first quarter hit a three-pointer with 5:50 left in the first half to make it a 21-6 advantage.

Glisson’s basket with 2.3 seconds left in the half had the Panthers up 30-17.

Southwest DeKalb was holding its own with a 43-27 lead with one quarter to play, but would hit 10 of 12 free throws and have no baskets in the first 6:30 of the third quarter as the Rams began to mount a comeback behind Jordan Sterling.

Sterling hit for 11 points in the final quarter to help the Rams in the rally. Devonta Brittain’s free throw with 42 seconds remaining closed the gap to six points (53-46). It was the closest the Rams had been since trailing 10-6 in the first quarter.

Glisson and Johnson would hit four consecutive free throws within one second of each other and Eugene Brown III hit his seventh and eighth free throw of the fourth quarter to help close out the 62-52 win.

Glisson hit for 19 points to lead the Panthers as teammates Eugene Brown (12) and Jaden Cyril (10) joined him in double figures.

Jordan Sterling finished with 19 points to lead the Rams (9-8, 2-4) and N’Kyzie Hawkins added 14. Sam Garrett grabbed 14 rebounds for the Rams.