By By ZACH BROOKS
Sports Writer
The Escambia Academy Cougars varsity girls basketball team began their week on Monday by playing Jay High School.
The Lady Cougars lost to Jay earlier in the season and would like nothing more than to beat Jay bad and even up their season series.
Jay stunned the Lady Cougars 47-33 when they played on December 6 in Jay.
The loss was one of four on the season for the Lady Cougars. The Lady Cougars are a impressive 13-4 and look to be getting even better as the season moves along.
The Lady Cougars come into the game with some momentum after their 64-43 demolishing of Crenshaw Academy.
The game against Jay started out right for the Lady Cougars as they outscored Jay 11-9 to take a two-point lead heading into the second quarter.
Both teams had a good quarter offensively in the second quarter, as the Lady Cougars scored 14 points and Crenshaw scored 11 points. At quarter's end though, the Cougars were up 25-21 heading into half-time.
The Lady Cougars had their best quarter offensively in the fourth quarter. They scored 15 points to Jay's eight and crushed any thought of a comeback as they won the game by 16 points, 54-38.
One of the biggest reasons for the Lady Cougars rout was their awesome shooting from the free-throw line. The Lady Cougars shot a blistering 88% from the line on 22/25 shooting.
Jay High School shot well from the free-throw line also, but they could not keep up with the blistering pace that the Lady Cougars were on. Jay shot a respectable 55% from the line on 6/11 shooting.
The scoring of Holly Mack was another reason why the Lady Cougars won so convincingly. Holly is the leading scorer for the season for the Lady Cougars, but she truly outdid herself against Jay with a magnificent 35-point performance. The 35 points that she scored was a career-high for Mack, with her previous high being 28 points.
Another big reason was the rebounding and scoring of the Lady Cougars inside game. Jennifer Martin lead the Lady Cougars in rebounds with 11 and she also was second on the team in points with 13 points on the night, for her second double double in as many games.
Martin has been on a roll lately. She had 26 points and 13 rebounds in the win against Crenshaw and the 13 point and 11 rebound game against Jay.
Martin was helped on the boards by Bethany Hawkins. Hawkins had seven rebounds on the night for the Lady Cougars.
Hawkins has been a big inside presence for the Lady Cougars all year, contributing solid scoring and rebounding.
Sabrina Glover lead Jay in scoring with 19 points on the night. Megan Patrick followed for Jay on the night with 11 points.
The Lady Cougars next game will be against the South Montgomery Red Raiders in South Montgomery on Friday. The games will start at 4:00 and will be for all teams.