By PAUL GOTHAM
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Shariona Blocker scored 15 of her 24 points in the first quarter, and teammate Makayla McCorker finished with a game-high 30 as the East High girls downed School of the Arts (SOTA), 95-37 in Rochester City Athletic Conference action, Thursday night.
In a game where they never trailed, Blocker and Diamond Pickett scored four points apiece in the opening moments to stake East to an 8-1 lead and force a timeout from the SOTA bench.
“Everybody did their job tonight, so I’m happy,” second-year coach Tim Jackson said.
East forced 11 turnovers during the first quarter with Blocker getting ahead of the defense for layups in the open court. The junior guard’s and-one made it an 11-1 game, and SOTA was not able to cut the deficit to single digits for the remainder of the contest.
The win was the second in as many night for the Eagles which beat Honeoye Falls-Lima 57-39 Wednesday night.
Makayla McCorker scored 17 points in the first half. The junior is picking up where she left off with this finish inside. @GoEastEagles are running away with this one. pic.twitter.com/yo1jASu9Tq
— Paul Gotham (@PickinSplinters) December 6, 2019
“I like the effort that we played with tonight,” Jackson added. “I like the effort we played with last night. If we can do this on a nightly basis, we’ll be a pretty good team.”
McCorker, a 6-foot junior, scored 15 in the second quarter, and East opened 56-18 advantage heading into halftime. In doing so, East limited SOTA’s India Jordan to 10 points over the first 16 minutes of action.
Makayla McCorker scored 17 points in the first half. The junior is picking up where she left off with this finish inside. @GoEastEagles are running away with this one. pic.twitter.com/yo1jASu9Tq
— Paul Gotham (@PickinSplinters) December 6, 2019
“India is a very good player,” Jackson said of the SOTA senior who topped the 1,000 career point mark last season. “We did such a good job of taking her out of the game. I was happy with our defense.”
East, which fell in the final of the Waterloo Tournament over the past weekend, improved to 3-1 on the season.
“Two games ago we couldn’t make a basket,” Jackson noted. “The energy wasn’t there. I didn’t feel we were conditioned. That’s my fault. I told them that will never happen again that we can’t get up and down the floor. We’ve done some things to correct that. They won’t be like that again.”
McCorker grabbed eight to go with four assists and five steals for the game. Blocker finished with nine assists, three rebounds and four steals. Pickett added eight points and a game-high 16 rebounds. Imani Oliver had 16 points, six rebounds and three steals. Xandria Flanders contributed 14 points, four rebounds and five steals. Samantha Conrow (2) and Lidea Nunez (1) rounded out the scoring for East.
Imani Oliver buries one from the corner. pic.twitter.com/rMVa7Iilvh
— Paul Gotham (@PickinSplinters) December 6, 2019
Jordan paced SOTA with 24 points. Jazlynn Logan added eight points, and Eysha Clarke had five.
Makayla McCorker scored 17 points in the first half. The junior is picking up where she left off with this finish inside. @GoEastEagles are running away with this one. pic.twitter.com/yo1jASu9Tq
— Paul Gotham (@PickinSplinters) December 6, 2019
East hosts Our Lady of Mercy Monday night for a 6:15 PM tip off. SOTA travels to play Batavia-Notre Dame on Monday night.
Leave a Reply