A mismatch on paper, so too, was the Union City-Trenton girls’ game in the first round of the District 14A Tournament.
The No. 1-ranked and top-seeded Lady Tornadoes — having already beaten Peabody by 47 and 37 points in earlier meetings — put the winless Lady Tide out of their misery with a 49-21 blowout Monday night at UCHS.
The victory, which established a new single season school mark for wins for the UC girls’ program, guarantees the Twister girls (24-3) of at least three more games this season — beginning with a Thursday semifinal date vs. fourth-seeded Greenfield at South Fulton.
SF, which thrashed Humboldt 67-30 Monday and Lake County — a 46-36 winner over Bradford — will play in a second semi.
The tourney title tilt is scheduled for Saturday at 8 p.m., following the battle for third place at 6:30.
All four teams still remaining in the tournament field have already assured themselves of a spot in next week’s regional.
While the final score indicated a rout, it certainly didn’t start that way as UC led only 4-0 after one period with its opponent not attempting a single shot while stalling on each of its possessions.
After the game, head coach Eddie Suiter didn’t have any interest in talking about the record number of wins in a season.
“It’s not anything we even discuss with the team,” he said. “We’re focused on our next goal, which is to win our next game. After the season, we’ll look back on the record and it will mean something, but right now we just have to focus on our next game.”
After the low-scoring first quarter, the Lady Twisters picked up the pace offensively in the second quarter, scoring 13 points, and the Tide girls (0-27) finally got on the board with four points after not taking a shot for the first quarter and a half.
The local club extended the lead to 31-9 after three quarters in the book.
While the UC girls struggled at times offensively, Suiter said he was pleased with the result and especially the defense, which forced 34 turnovers.
“The style of play may have been ugly, but we’ll take it,” he said. “We worked on our traps defensively and we got a lot out of them.
“Overall, it’s hard to complain about a 28-point win.”
Senior forward Tory Reedy led the team in scoring with 16 points, including a 10-of-10 night at the free throw line, and was joined in double digits by junior forwards Jackie Hudson (14) and TauiNeiscia Skinner (12).
“Reedy was very active tonight, attacking their defense,” Suiter said. “She did a good job of setting up other people and Skinner had a good offensive game.”
In looking to the upcoming matchup with Greenfield, the head coach said the scores from the regular season  — wins of 42-26 and 64-37 — are not indicative of the difficulties his club faced when playing them.
“We struggled with Greenfield even though we beat them twice,” he said. “They make you take contested shots and we have to be ready for that.
“And we need to do the same to them with our defense by making them take contested shots.”
SF 67, Humboldt 30
The second-seeded Devilettes (21-6) cruised into Thursday’s semis.
SF led 21-8 after one quarter, 41-19 at the half and put the running clock in motion in the fourth quarter with a commanging 63-23 advantage.
Taleeah Cross pumped in 18 points while both Ka-lon Martin and Laken Haley added 14 apiece to the winning South Fulton cause.
Martin added seven rebounds and three steals, while Haley had five rebounds and four assists.

Published in The Messenger 2.12.13