By PATRICK CASEY
The Ponce de Leon Lady Pirates earned their 20th win of the season with a 64-47 defeat of Holmes County in Bonifay on Thursday night.
Kaitlyn Carroll and Jasmine Flock scored 17 points apiece while the Pirates defense forced 18 first-half turnovers from the home team to pull away for a 38-29 lead at halftime.
PDL, which connected on 24-of-48 shots from the floor on the night, held the Bluedevils to 3-of-15 shooting from the field in the third quarter to stretch the lead to 51-36 after three quarter of play.
The Pirates earned a sweep in the regular season series with a 13-11 scoring advantage over the final eight minutes of play to improve to 20-2 on the year.
JoJo Carlson added 10 points for the visiting team while Holmes County struggled to battle the Pirates for rebounds as the squad played without starting center Hannah Howell who was lost to the squad with a foot injury in a game against Baker earlier in the week.
The Bluedevils managed to get to the free throw line only three times during the game, making a lone shot from the charity stripe to the chagrin of many of their fans.
Eight different Pirates had a hand in the scoring column as Ponce de Leon wrapped up their ninth consecutive season of 20 or more wins with the victory over their county rival.
Team Notes: Tim Alford has posted a 209-60 record the last nine seasons with the Pirates. Jasmine Flock passed the 1,000 points scored mark in the Pirates game at Graceville on Jan. 12. Flock now has 1,056 points scored in 105 games entering the final week of the girls regular season. Flock joins Mary Howes, Hillary Harper and Lacey Griffin as Pirates players to reach that mark over the last five years.