By Al Muskewitz, East Alabama Sports Today

PIEDMONT –Practicing the press isn’t fun and isn’t easy, but Piedmont girls coach Terrace Ridley told her team it was going to need it and when the Lady Bulldogs played it, they’d have to play it hard.

That time came in the second half of Monday night’s Class 3A Area 11 tournament game and it carried the Lady Bulldogs to a 53-36 win over Weaver.

Piedmont got off to a slow start and trailed at halftime 26-23. It opened the second half in the press and it fueled a 16-2 quarter that gave the Lady Dawgs the lead.

The comeback actually started in the second quarter when Armoni Perry came off the bench to hit back-to-back 3-pointers that forced Weaver out of its zone, but it kicked in in earnest after they talked about things at the break.

“We put the press on them and created turnovers and go our scoring going,” Ridley said. “The press is something we don’t do unless we have to use it.

“We’ve been working on it and working on it ever since we played the last time. I told them we’re going to have to pull it out and when we do you have to go at it hard. We executed it well.”

Piedmont (11-12) didn’t have a big scorer, but had balanced scoring. Ava Pope was the Lady Bulldogs leading scorer with 11 points, but Z’Hayla Walker and Emily Farmer each had nine and all seven of their scorers had at least five points.

LeLe Ridley had seven points and 19 rebounds with four steals and three blocked shots. Farmer had six steals and four rebounds.

Weaver’s Haley Homesley led all scorers with 19 points. 

Piedmont will play at top-seeded Ohatchee Thursday for the area championship.