Rams top Jackets, secure No. 1 seed

ASHFORD – Headland literally left nothing to chance when it took down Ashford on the Yellow Jackets’ home court Friday night.

 Dexter Marsh dominated in the paint with a game-high 21 points, powering the Rams to a 62-46 win. That strong performance also helped Headland (17-7, 4-2 Class 4A Area 3) avoid a messy situation going into next week’s area tournament.

 An Ashford win would have forced a four-way tie between all the teams in the area. Andalusia and Straughn both finished area play 3-3, and a coin flip would have been needed to decide all four seeds in the tournament.

 “We knew that going in,” Rams coach Robert Williams said. “We knew we had to put pressure on them, and we did that.”

 Headland will be the No. 1 seed in the area tournament, and its opening game will be against No. 4 seed Ashford (9-14, 2-4).

 The Rams’ Tashaun McCray and Martez Reaves strolled from the locker room to the bench in the third quarter, fresh off a visit to the University of West Alabama, who will sign football scholarships there next week.

 “I notified the refs what was going on,” Williams said. “Those guys were our subs, so they gave us some rest. I had one person to sub, so I was basically playing five people all the time.”

 The Rams were still holding their own without the bench depth.

 Leading by only two after halftime, the Rams took that to a 34-24 advantage on a breakaway layup by guard Kyle Harp.

 Ashford fell behind by as much as 13 before Dan Curl’s 3-pointer cut Headland’s lead to 47-44 with 3:57 left in the game.

 Everything that happened after that seemed like a blur. Headland stole three easy baskets and pushed its lead back up to nine with more than a minute left.

 “We need to learn to stop running our mouths so much and play basketball,” Ashford coach Bart McWaters said. “They’ve got a good basketball team, and I don’t want to take anything away from them, but it ain’t about how much you can talk. We played good for three quarters, but after that …”

 Point guard Rafael Alvarado led Ashford with 15 points, but Headland boxed him up in the final five minutes and didn’t allow him to score from the field.

 Devon Gooden scored 12 for the Yellow Jackets, and Octavius Snell had eight.

 The game ended about the same way it began for the Rams. They hit a trio of 3-pinters in the first quarter and never trailed during the ball game.

 Dishon McKay added 14 points for Headand, and Yorey Collins had nine.

 “We went on a run in the second half, but they battled back, and we knew they would,” Williams said.

 Headland added to its recent dominance of this series. The Rams have now won 12 straight games against Ashford. Their last loss to the Yellow Jackets was in 2009.