Strong defense pushes Lady Braves past Trinity Christian

(Franklin, GA) — The Lady Braves were in action at HCHS Saturday afternoon and came out with a solid 41-34 win over Trinity Christian — a Class A private team from Sharpsburg.

Freshman Jayden Boykin led the way for the squad in scoring with 14 points to go along with six rebounds and two assists.

The Lady Braves battled back from a four point halftime deficit to earn the win and the big shot of the game came from junior Zekylah Boyd.

Boyd’s 3-point basket with just 2:01 to play broke up a tie game and gave the Lady Braves a 34-31 lead that they would not relinquish again.

Jayden Boykin (Photo: Juliann Carpenter)

A Jasmine Owens bucket with 37.1 seconds to play iced the contest for the home team.

Other statistical leaders for the Lady Braves included Owens (9 points, 7 rebounds), Sophia Long (5 points, 5 rebounds, 5 assists, 4 steals), Boyd (5 points, and Hermonie Garza (8 points, 8 rebounds, 3 blocks, 3 steals, 2 assists).

The 7-1 start to the season through eight games is one of the strongest for Heard County girl’s basketball in modern history.

Head coach Helen Akins was really pleased with the way her team responded defensively down the stretch and in limiting Trinity’s UAB commit Anna Denes to just 15 points in the game.

“They shoot the 3 ball really well but I felt like that our defense was really what won the game for us. We did such a good job on their best player (Denes) — she’s a division one player and we held her under 20 points. I’m just super proud of our girls on defense,” Akins said after the game.

“Down the stretch we looked a little rocky here and there but down the stretch when it really mattered our ball handlers really stepped up. Boykin and Long did a good job we hit some free throw Garza led us in rebounds. Garza and Owens were both in foul trouble but they were just really disciplined and didn’t foul out.”

Akins has also been pleased by the progress of Boykin in her first year as a varsity player.

“You know everybody’s been waiting for Jayden to get here since she was in the 6th grade. She’s just such a phenomenal athlete and she’s still only 14 years old. She’s having to play really hard and to play a little uncomfortable with the speed of the game and trying to get acclimated to it so not really surprised that she has been our most productive player but she has yet to reach her potential.”

Akins thinks one of the ley factors for this 2020-2021 edition of the Lady Braves is the depth.

“Mykhia Echols has been really good for us coming off the bench and Shyann Kelley was really good today. I think this is the most depth we’ve had since we made our Elite 8 run back in 2016,” Akins said.