COVINGTON, Ga. — The Newton Rams tipped off the new year with a sweep of St. Anne-Pacelli at home on Tuesday. 

In game one, the Lady Rams defeated the Lady Vikings 43-39 before the Newton boy’s team won 78-62. Both teams had to fight off late comebacks.

Lady Rams escape a late push from Lady Vikings

The Lady Rams ended their four-game skid Tuesday with a win over the Lady Vikings, who entered the game with a 6-3 record.

At halftime, Newton’s advantage was 25-19, but they seemed to play their best ball coming out of the intermission. 

Newton held the Lady Vikings to only three points in the third frame.

For head coach Jawan Bailey, the strong defensive play was actually a result of their offensive game plan.

“Our emphasis in the third quarter was moving the ball on offense,” Bailey said. “We didn’t even talk about defense. The defense ended up being there because we did a good job on offense of being disciplined. It just rolls over into each other.”

After climbing to a 41-22 lead going into the fourth quarter, Newton seemingly let the momentum fall back to St. Anne-Pacelli, who began to mount a comeback.

The Lady Vikings inched closer in the final minutes, but the Lady Rams fought off the comeback to earn the 43-39 win.

Newton’s performance in the final quarter was still on the mind of Bailey following the game.

“It [the game] was good. It would have been a lot better if we finished the game better,” Bailey said. “We had a really good groove going in the third quarter and then a really bad fourth quarter. It almost feels like we lose in a sense, but a win is a win. We feel good about it going into region play on Friday.”

Senior Sanaa Tripp scored 10 points in the first two quarters and was the player controlling the pace for the Lady Rams.

For the Lady Vikings, their struggles early at finding open shots led to them ultimately trailing for the majority of the contest.

Despite the struggles, St. Anne-Pacelli kept it close because of McKayla Hasley.

Halsey was the focal point on offense and defense for St. Anne-Pacelli as her size allowed her to give Newton difficulty in the paint.

For the Lady Rams, scoring was led by Tripp with 13 points and Alissa Sandifer with 11 points.

Newton’s victory moves them to 7-7 on the year. The Lady Rams will now look ahead to Region 4-AAAAAAA play when they go on the road to play South Gwinnett (5-7) Friday, Jan. 5.

Newton’s first half play helps avoid the St. Anne-Pacelli surge late

The Vikings mounted a push late, but the Rams’ offensive production proved too much in the end as Newton came away with the win.

Newton went into halftime with a 48-25 lead and all the momentum after KJ White launched a half-court buzzer beater that went right into the net.

By the start of the fourth quarter, the Rams’ lead had shrunk 64-53.

In the final minutes, the Vikings began to miss the shots they were making in the third frame that helped them get back into the contest.

Two slam dunks from Jordan Green and Jabez Jenkins served as Newton’s exclamation point in their win.

Head coach Barry Browner was pleased with how his team responded in the final eight minutes after allowing 28 points in the third quarter.

“We had to settle down a little bit. We had gotten up and the guys got a little comfortable,” Browner said. “We needed to make sure we were getting back into our rhythm basically. They [St. Anne-Pacelli] can definitely score the basketball so we just need to make sure we are in tune with that from now on.”

Though he finished the game with a dunk, Green got the game started with back-to-back three pointers to give Newton the early advantage.

Along with Green, Tim Praither and Bryce Jackson are players that Browner highlighted after the game when discussing his team’s success shooting the ball.

In the first half alone, the Rams knocked down nine three pointers.

Green and Jackson’s emergence comes in part due to injuries on the team that Browner has had to work around.

“We had had a few guys out,” Browner said. “Ted [Neal] has been out for the last three games and we were missing AJ Belcher tonight. [Tonight] was Bryce Jackson’s first time back in two weeks. I am glad to have Bryce back and when we get Ted back we will be at 100 percent. We are getting a lot of things from different guys on the team, you never know who’s night it is going to be.”

With the Vikings finding their rhythm in the third quarter, the Rams leaned on Jenkins in the scoring department as Newton was able to close out the game with a 78-62 win.

Praither led the scoring for the Rams with 19 points while Jenkins finished with 16. 

Newton’s 78 points on Tuesday were its second highest scoring total of the year, only behind its 83 points against Kell in November.

The Rams moved to 10-2 on the year following the victory over the Vikings. Newton’s next game will be its region opener at South Gwinnett Friday, Jan. 5.