The first game in last night’s ‘Demopolis Classic’ pitted the Greensboro Raiders against the Akron Rams.

And Greensboro came out on top, knocking off Akron, 80-64.

In the first half of play, fast break opportunities helped the Raiders build a comfortable lead, putting the squad up at halftime, 47-33.

At one point during the second half, Greensboro built their lead to 20 points, only to have it cut down to 11 with only eight seconds left in the third quarter.

But the Raiders came out playing tough in the final frame to walk away with a 16-point victory.

Leading the way for the Raiders was I. White with 20 points.

A. Williams chipped in with 10 points and D. Williams added 10 points.

On the Akron side, George Brown put up 18 points to lead the squad.

Courtney Howell chipped in with 15 points and Orlando McAlpine got into the action with 13 points.

DHS varsity girls’ team picks up 14-point victory

The Demopolis Tigers varsity girls’ basketball team entered the stadium last night with high hopes of a repeat performance from the night before.

In a battle between the No. 2 Tigers and the regional undefeated Greensboro Raiders, Demopolis came out on top in a 50-36 victory.

But after a slow start for the girls, the Tigers held onto a slim 16-8 lead after one quarter of play.

“I’m very disappointed,” head coach Tony Pittman said.

“We play on a high level last night and I don’t know what it is, but we were not mentally prepared to play tonight.

And Greensboro always plays us hard, and they had a lot to do with it.”

However, by the time the third quarter rolled to an end, the Tigers had jumped out to a 40-22 lead.

“They had some different things that we didn’t expect, and it took us a long period of time to adjust,” Pittman said.

“In the second half, I thought we came out and played pretty good through the first part of the third quarter.

And in the fourth quarter, we built up a big lead and I tried to sub, but are subs didn’t respond.

So, it’s just one of those ball games where I feel like from a total team standpoint, we didn’t have it tonight.”

Although this is the lowest scoring out of the season for the Tigers, the girls’ team still held on to win by 14 points.

“As a coach, you expect your kids to play at a high level every night,” Pittman said.

“And we just didn’t do it tonight.

And our defense, which I speak about all the time because defense sets the tone for us, didn’t have any energy.”

Although there was a lack of energy and high level of play in last night’s victory, coach Pittman believes there are still some positives to come from this game.

“Our character was the greatest aspect of our game tonight,” Pittman said.

“We didn’t play as well as we felt like we could, but we did what we had to do to win the ball game.

Which speaks volumes for this club.

We had some people step up and I feel it was our character that helped us win tonight.”

Boxing out and getting rebounds, along with some great ball movement were also key factors in the Tigers victory.

Leading the way for the Tigers was Shawnese Armstead with 19 points and Gabriell Essex with 14 points.

On the Raiders side, Vanessa Rhodes led the team with 16 points and Kara Johnson chipped in with eight points.

The DHS varsity girls’ team returns to action tonight to battle Francis Marion on the road.

Tip-off is set for 6:30 p.m. tomorrow at Marion.