Johns-Richardson Takes Over in 3rd to Lead Troy

A wrecking ball couldn’t have brought down the house quicker than Veronica Johns-Richardson did Friday night. The sophomore guard scored 15 of her 23 points in the third quarter to rally fourth-ranked Troy to a 54-42 victory over Sonora in a Freeway League girls’ basketball game at Sonora.

The Warriors (20-0, 5-0 in league) trailed by as many as nine points in the first half, but took the lead with a 16-0 run to start the third quarter. Johns-Richardson scored 11 points during the run.

“There were no doubts at halftime [that we could come back], but we were very disappointed in our playing,” Johns-Richardson said. “We had to pick it up big time, especially because it’s their house, their crowd. All we had was each other.”

Johns-Richardson was equally dominant on the glass, grabbing a season-high 22 rebounds, which doubled her previous best mark. “I didn’t want to step it up just on offense after halftime, I wanted to step it up period,” said Johns-Richardson, who averaged 8.2 rebounds coming into the game.

Sonora (13-7, 4-1) took a 22-13 lead on Sarah Fister’s steal and layup with 2 minutes 41 seconds remaining in the second quarter. Fister scored 10 of her team-high 14 points in the first half.

Johns-Richardson scored her first points of the game with 1:10 remaining in the first half to cut the lead to two, and her driving layup in the opening minutes of the second half gave the Warriors their first lead since early in the second quarter.

Troy then moved ahead by 17 points after outscoring the Raiders 23-2 in the third quarter. Sonora committed 27 turnovers in the game, compared to 10 for the Warriors.

“Too many mistakes,” Sonora Coach Rick Albano said. “We’ve just got to stay patient. When we don’t play patient, then we don’t get good shots.”