Wolfpack Girls Hoops Fall

The North Paulding High School girls basketball team found themselves in 24-13 halftime hole and couldn't recover as Allatoona beat the Wolfpack 53-33 Wednesday night in the first round of its second-annual three-day Lake City Classic Basketball Tournament.

Senior guard Megan Hart drained a pair of 3-pointers in the third quarter and finished with a team-high 10 points for North Paulding, which dropped to 5-6 overall.

"We could’ve easily competed (more) with them and maybe even beat them if we would’ve came out strong and played strong all the way through," Hart said.

Wolfpack senior guard Jazmin Konnick agreed with Hart's assessment.

"We came out kind of flat in the beginning and that really hurt us because we played their game instead of ours," she said.

Konnick and sophomore Jalexis Teemer each added 5 points apiece for North Paulding, which played Lanier (5-7) at 1 p.m. today.

Junior forward Alexis Ezell helped to ensure the Allatoona rout with 12 of her game-high 20 points coming in the second half for the Buccaneers, who raised their school-best record to 10-1 with the victory.

Allatoona will play South Atlanta (3-6) at 7 p.m. today in the semifinals. The Hornets beat Lanier 38-28 to advance.

“I had to play better for my team because they needed me,” said the 5-foot-10 Ezell, who reached the 20-point plateau for the fifth time this season. “I knew I could play better. I just started posting up and they got me the ball and I scored.”