Newton Citizen

Photo by Howard Reed

McDONOUGH -- Alexis Somerset certainly made her presence felt scoring 32 points and grabbing 16 boards to give Eastside its first win of the season with a 60-53 win over Henry County on Tuesday.

Somerset's stellar play could not have come at a better time as the Lady Eagles' (1-2 overall, 1-0 Region 4-AAA) first win was a region win.

"We want to win every single game but we look at it as a building block. This is a great win for us. We want to keep the momentum going," Eastside head coach Matthew Jackson said.

The Lady Eagles trailed for most of the game as they fell behind by as many as 10 points before their aggressive-style play brought them back from the grips of another loss. They were able to accomplish this by being aggressive without being out of control. While they were shooting double-bonus shots for most of the second quarter, the Lady Eagles had only committed four fouls with three minutes left in the first half.

Eastside trailed 32-25 early in the third quarter before closing the gap by the end of the period. As the buzzer sounded, the Lady Eagles were down 43-42.

Somerset gave the Lady Eagles the lead for the first time on a pair of free throws as she was 14-of-19 from the line to make it 44-43.

"She's a senior; this is her last year so the sky is the limit for her," Jackson said of Somerset. "Her job is do what she does and make everyone around her better."

Henry County regained the lead because of fouls and turnovers but the Lady Eagles never lost hope. With less than three minutes left in the game, Somerset scored five straight points giving Eastside a 55-51 edge -- a lead they would never surrender.

Jymara Smith also scored in double figures for the Lady Eagles, ending the night with 14 points. Henry County's leading scorer, Kianna Coleman, finished with 21 points.

"We had to wear them down; that's why I played a lot of girls. I put just about everybody in to try to wear the other team down and we're short. That's one of the things we're going to have to live with. When you stick to the zone, people are going to be able to out-rebound us at times," Jackson said.

"I thought we were always in the game. We had some mental mistakes and some timing issues. We're young, so we're going to make turnovers. Sometimes we're going to be out of position, but that's just growing pain -- getting Alexis' legs under her and getting all the jitters out of her so she could also settle down."