Maggie Proffitt let the rock fly from beyond the 3-point line all night long.
The junior Columbus High School girls basketball guard drained eight 3-pointers Friday night as the Lady Falcons routed Wingfield High School 63-26 in their first game of the 15th Annual Joe Horne Columbus Christmas Invitational.
Proffitt scored 30 points, pulled down seven rebounds and might have set a record for made 3 pointers.
“I’m quite sure it is,” Lady Falcons head coach Yvonne Hairston said. “I’m not really sure.”
The CHS girls used a 14-2 run in the first quarter to gain the lead and never looked back. They held an 18-8 lead after the first quarter and took a 33-12 lead into halftime.
Hairston was proud of the defense her girls played and said it is something they worked on all week in preparation for the tournament.
“We worked on that all week. We had the week off,” she said, noting the focus was on closing out on the ball and boxing out on rebounds. “They did a great job.”
The Lady Falcons’ zone defense proved to be much more effective than Wingfield’s zone defense, which often left Proffitt open for three pointers in the corner. With each shot she made, the crowd’s cheers grew louder, and with each shot she took, the anticipation and hope for another make from downtown grew. Her point total could have been higher as a few shots were near-misses.
“She shot the lights out today,” Hairston said of Proffitt, but began laughing and joking when she followed with “she couldn’t make it in the lane though.
“But when she’s shooting like that, it’s big for us.”
Proffitt was not the only Lady Falcon to have a strong performance. Kiandria Patterson had 8 points, 4 assists and 4 rebounds. Kameron Corrothers added 6 points and 4 rebounds, and Kierra Kirby had 7 rebounds and 4 points.
For Wingfield, Kynesha Alexander led the team with 11 points. Brittany Jones had 3 steals.
The Lady Falcons hope to continue their winning ways against Lawrence County High School today at 5:20 p.m. inside the CHS gymnasium.
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