Booker T. Washington delivered a dominant performance Tuesday night at Niceville, defeating the Lady Eagles 64-27 as the visitors’ Chamiah Francis and Jada Clardy led the way.
The Lady Wildcats set the tone early with a 10-0 run to open the game. Niceville didn’t score until the 5:27 mark when Ramyan Tripeaux connected on a 3-pointer. Avery Cowles added another 3 that briefly cut Washington’s lead to six, but the Lady Wildcats closed the quarter on a 6-3 run to lead 20-9.
- Washington continued to pull away in the second quarter, outscoring Niceville 19-7 to take a 39-16 lead into halftime. Bria Dailey had a bucket early in the period for the Lady Eagles.
The second half followed a similar pattern. Khamauri Hardy scored back-to-back baskets for Niceville in the third quarter, but Francis, a Florida State commit, extended Washington’s lead to 30 with consecutive and-one conversions. Clardy opened the fourth with an and-one of her own as the Lady Wildcats cruised to the finish.
Niceville played without Carson Fayard, who is working her way back from injury. Lady Eagles coach Meghan Darhower said the team is focused on getting healthy for the postseason.
- “We’ve got some injuries, some people not a hundred percent, so we’re trying to get them a hundred percent for playoffs,” Darhower said. “We had quite a few girls that didn’t play tonight, and that’s OK. Postseason, districts and playoffs are the most important.”
Darhower said Fayard has begun working toward a return and is expected to be ready for playoff time.
The result marks a reversal from the teams’ first meeting this season, when Fayard hit a late go-ahead bucket to give Niceville a 49-48 victory at Washington.
“It was the first game of the season, two totally different teams at the beginning of the year versus now,” Washington coach Jade Brown said. “So of course you want to get your get back, but we didn’t have this mindset of we need to beat them. We just came in and did what we needed to do and we focused on the process.”
Niceville (17-7) will conclude its regular season at home Friday against Milton before entering district play.
Booker T. Washington (17-3) finished the regular season as the No. 1 seed in the district tournament and will have a first-round bye along with Choctaw.
