LaFayette, Lanett split first varsity doubleheader

BY DANIEL SCHMIDT

THE LAFAYETTE SUN

LAFAYETTE – In front of a packed crowd at John T. Woody Court, the LaFayette High School and Lanett High School girls and boys basketball teams split their games on Jan. 2, with the Lady Panthers defeating the Lady Bulldogs 64-40 and the Bulldogs defeating the Panthers 65-54.

With those results, the Lady Bulldogs fell to 4-10, while the Bulldogs strengthened their record to 12-7. The Lady Panthers improved to 5-5, and the Panthers must go back to the drawing board with a 2-6 record.

Lady Panthers 64, Lady Bulldogs 40

After losing 54-48 to Troup County High School from Georgia, on Dec. 29, Lanett girls head basketball coach Charlie Williams knew his defense would be critical to getting a win in a notoriously difficult gymnasium to play in. He got exactly that as the Lady Panthers held the Lady Bulldogs to just 19 first-half points.

“We were very aggressive on defense. Once we settled in and got our rotation down better in the second half, we played much better,” Williams said. “[My players] work hard. If you don’t shoot in this gym right here every day, it’s hard to come in here and just make shots. We struggled early in the first half.”

Despite the rivalry’s historic nature, Williams seemed happier just to get a win in the team’s first game in 2026.

“Every win is a good win, rivalry or no rivalry. I’ll take any win that we can get,” Williams said.

According to senior guard Nakeriona Heard, who turbocharged the Lady Panthers by scoring all nine of her points in the third quarter, the result highlighted areas for improvement while also setting the stage for a strong close to the regular season.

“It feels pretty good. I really think that we could have done a lot better than we did, but I’ll take it,” Heard said. “I feel like this is going to teach us a lesson and show us what we need to work on and get better at, and come together as a team.”

With two weeks worth of bragging rights on the line, the girls game began as a cagey affair as both teams found it difficult to score from anywhere other than the free throw line in the opening minutes. As the first quarter progressed, tough contested shots in the paint refused to fall and the Lady Panthers transitioned to a full-court press and began penetrating the Lady Bulldogs’ defense with excellent passes.

By the time the dust settled, Lanett entered the second quarter up 13-9, and the contest became ultra-physical with players scrapping, clawing and fighting for every loose ball. That sense of desperation, strong defenses and plenty of hard fouls caused most offensive success to come on the fast break for both teams. A strong finish to the quarter then helped LaFayette cut Lanett’s lead to 21-19 heading into halftime.

However, the opening two minutes of the third quarter saw the Lady Panthers’ defense apply constant full-court pressure on the Lady Bulldogs and ensured they couldn’t seize onto any momentum. Numerous fast-break scoring opportunities also allowed Lanett to stretch their lead to 43-29 by the end of the third quarter and make any possible comeback attempt difficult for LaFayette.

That strategy continued into the fourth quarter as Lanett’s full-court press continued to lead to plenty of transition opportunities, which the Lady Panthers overwhelmingly capitalized on. Despite their continued effort, the Lady Bulldogs had very few answers for the defenders harassing them in their half of the court.

Bulldogs 65, Panthers 54

Following the girls’ game, the boys took to the court in a thrilling game defined by momentum swings and clutch shooting down the stretch. In a similar tone to Lanett’s Williams, LaFayette head boys’basketball coach Chase Lewis was just happy to leave the gymnasium with a hard-fought win.

“It’s cool. Most importantly, this is an area game, so I’m happy we got a big area win more than the rivalry [game], because we needed the area win,” Lewis said. “The goal when you play these area games is to make sure you win all your home games and steal you some on the road, so we did pretty good.”

Throughout Christmas break, Lewis said his team practiced relentlessly to stay sharp and not be caught flat-footed no matter the situation they found themselves in.

“We’ve been practicing this for the past two weeks,” Lewis said. “I think over Christmas break, we took Christmas Day and the day after Christmas off, and then we were back in the gym. So we’ve been practicing for two weeks, doing different scenarios and shooting free throws a lot because we knew we needed to get better at the line.”

In a game where numerous players on both teams had big performances, perhaps none was more impactful than that of LaFayette senior forward Amilleon Huguley. His timely three-point shooting and playmaking abilities helped the Bulldogs race out to an early lead that lasted virtually the entire game.

“Getting repetitions and working on everything in practice, working on the game plan the whole time for these two weeks, we just capitalized real good,” Huguley said. “We pretty much just took what the defense gave us. We started off real fast, and we started off hot, and we just hit our open shots.”

While the girls’ game began as a defensive slugfest, the boys’ game was anything but, as both offenses came out firing on all cylinders, particularly from behind the three-point line. By the time a very intense, but relatively clean, first quarter ended, the crowd rose to its feet as the Bulldogs pulled away late to take a 21-13 lead.

In the second quarter, scoring opportunities initially became much more difficult to come by as defensive rebounding proved crucial for both teams. However, LaFayette eventually could do no wrong offensively as most shots fell and Huguley injected an infectious energy into the home crowd with three-pointer after three-pointer.

By the time the halftime buzzer sounded, the Bulldogs held a commanding 41-22 lead over the Panthers.

After a scorching end to the first half, LaFayette’s defense took over the third quarter by holding Lanett scoreless through nearly the first four minutes. Following that cold streak, a run by the Panthers toward the end of the quarter allowed them to slightly shrink the Bulldogs’ lead to 52-35 and give themselves a shot at an unlikely comeback.

In the fourth quarter, constant pressure from the Panthers led to an offensive dry spell for LaFayette, and steady scoring allowed Lanett to slowly work their way back into the game. Despite seeing their lead slowly slip away, excellent free-throw shooting by the Bulldogs helped fend off an inspired Panthers team that shrunk the deficit to seven points with less than two minutes left to play.