The girls' prep basketball scene in Chattanooga is set to flourish, especially with Chattanooga Christian's double-trouble guard tandem of freshman Aubriyana Camp and eighth-grader Momo Moore leading the way.
After all, both Camp and Moore have already scored 40-plus points in a high school game in their careers, both doing so in just their second varsity games, before they even reached ninth grade.
With a standing room only crowd on hand Monday night it was Camp who led the way with 20 points, eight rebounds and four steals in a 58-45 home victory over Boyd Buchanan, whichi is led by sophomore Lesley Burton.
"Aubriyana is such a special player. She is so relentless and plays all facets of the game," CCS coach Laura Cottrell said. "There is not a ball she will not try to go get. You can tell she has played here at this level now. She is mature beyond her years and it really helps to be able to put the ball in her hands."
Moore helped spark a huge early run as she split a double team at the top of the key and dished a nice assist before rattling off two consecutive 3-pointers on the way to scoring 13 points. Last week the eighth grade point guard was featured on a national sports outlet called Overtime for crossing over a defender and hitting a 3-point shot with another defender coming on and fouling her. The video has reached nearly 350,000 views on Twitter.
CCS (3-1) saw 5-foot-11 junior forward Lailani Hatten step up as an X-factor in the victory, as she blocked shots, came up with key rebounds and also stole several passes while finishing with 10 points.
Camp scored eight straight in the second quarter during a three-minute stretch in which she crossed a defender for a floater and then made a pair of 3-pointers to build a 27-12 lead with 3:53 left before halftime.
"We have seen this program move in this direction for a few years now," Cottrell said. "Aubriyana made a huge difference last year for us and now MoMo is a problem for defenses. Not only is this team full of gifted athletes, but they are humble kids who are calm, cool and collected. They are going to make this program one of the best in the city again."
Boyd Buchanan trimmed a 24-point deficit to 10 points in the fourth quarter as Burton imposed her will with nice footwork and touch in the paint on the way to a game-high 23 points. Sarah Durham chipped in with 13 points and a trio of 3-pointers for the Lady Bucs (1-2).
"We haven't had a big in the middle who can dominate in a while," Boyd coach Tracey Walker said. "Our girls realized in the second half what she can do for our team. Getting her the ball opens up our outside shooting. In the past we have had to score off our defense, slashers and shoot from the outside and now we have a big who can make all of that easier for us.
"Tonight we would play great defense and they would put up a contested, off-balanced shot but we would give up rebound after rebound. We have to do a better job controlling the boards."
Contact Patrick MacCoon at pmaccoon@timesfreepress.com.