By ALEC ETHEREDGE | Sports Editor

MONTEVALLO – It’s been an up and down start to the 2018-19 basketball season for the Montevallo boys and girls basketball teams, but on Thursday, Dec. 13, the two teams not only evened their records up at .500, but also improved to 2-0 in area play with wins against Oak Grove.

For the girls it was an unbelievably dominant win that saw the Bulldogs allow just seven total points in a 50-7 victory that pushed their record to 4-4 overall.

The boys also got off to a fast start and never looked back in a 74-49 victory that now has them at 5-5 overall this season.

In the boys’ game, Montevallo used a strong first quarter to separate itself from Oak Grove. The Bulldogs put up a game-high 25 points in the quarter, while also limiting Oak Grove to a game-low of 10 points to take an early 15-point advantage.

For the second quarter in a row, the Bulldogs were able to post at least 20 points, putting up 20 on the number in the second period to give them a halftime total of 45 points.

Oak Grove was able to have its best offensive quarter in the period, but were still outscored by five points after posting 15 in the quarter, which gave Montevallo a solid 45-25 halftime lead.

The game was played much closer in the second half with the Bulldogs’ offense failing to have the same success in the first half, but they still did enough to outscore Oak Grove in the final two periods.

Montevallo put up 16 more points in the third quarter, while limiting the Tigers to 14 points, which allowed the Bulldogs to extend their lead to 61-39 heading to the final quarter.

In the fourth, Montevallo only mustered 13 points, but yet again, the defense did its job allowing Oak Grove to put up just 10 points for the second quarter of the game, which put the game away by the final score of 74-49.

Jamarius Carter continued an impressive season in the post with a double-double performance posting 17 points and 11 boards with two blocks. Davion Gilbert was just behind with 16 points, while adding five assists.

Montevallo had help from two freshmen as well. Michael Jones and Kial Cottingham both added nine points.