By ALEC ETHEREDGE | Sports Editor

NORTH SHELBY – After a high-scoring affair with Calera to end last week, the Briarwood Lions got back to their defensive roots against county foe Vincent at home on Tuesday, Dec. 4, in a dominant 35-19 victory.

The Lions (4-3) controlled the game throughout and was able to slow the game down to the pace they wanted to in the second half thanks to a large halftime lead. 

Briarwood was able to jump out to a fast start in the opening period thanks to depth as six of the team’s 12 players scored in the quarter to give the Lions 12 points.

They went 2-4 from the free throw line to start the game, but four points from both Caroline Mays and Maddie Vaughn keyed the strong start offensively.

Briarwood was also able to match that on the defensive end by limiting Vincent (0-4) to just one made field goal and one made free throw as the Yellow Jackets managed just three points in the quarter giving BCS a 12-3 lead heading into the second quarter.

That effort carried over into the second period thanks to a defense that was aggressive in the back court early in the quarter. Briarwood also carried that aggressive style over to the offensive side of the ball with the majority of the Lions’ points coming thanks to aggressive drives to the basket.

It led to several free throw attempts where the Lions went 4-6, while also leading to five made baskets in the quarter. The Lions were able to post a total of 14 points in the frame and outscored Vincent 14-4 to extend their lead to 26-7 heading to the halftime break.

Coming out of the break, Vincent knew it was giving up too many offensive rebounds and not playing as fundamentally sound as it wanted to on the defensive floor in the first half, but that effort changed in the third quarter.

The Yellow Jackets started the quarter on a positive note thanks to a deep shot from Jalyn Kelley.

That was followed by three consecutive possessions from the two teams featuring a steal and a layup as Briarwood pulled off two steals to Vincent’s one during that series of plays.

The Yellow Jackets, however, answered back with a quick 4-0 run over the next three possessions to cut the Briarwood lead to 30-15 just over midway through the period.

With Vincent’s defense picking up, however, and the Lions continuing strong play on that end of the floor, neither team scored over the final few minutes of the quarter leading to that same score heading to the final period.

That scoreless drought continued into the fourth quarter as neither team scored over the first four minutes of the period despite many good second-chance opportunities for Briarwood.

While it benefited the Lions for it to be a low-scoring period, they finally ended the scoring drought with 4:03 left to play when Emily Scott got the after a steal by her teammate who found Scott wide open in the post for a quick layup.

Jalen Hunter added one more basket for Briarwood with a runner floater at the 1:20 mark to give the Lions a 34-15 lead.

That score held up for the next 50 seconds before the final 30 seconds saw more action than the entire quarter with the Yellow Jackets hitting two jumpers and the Lions hitting 1-2 at the free throw line to lead to the final score of 35-19.

Hunter led Briarwood with eight points, while seven players scored in all. Vincent got eight points from Zhari Posey to lead the Yellow Jackets.