Blackman's girls remained perfect in District 7-AAA play last Friday night, while the boys remained unblemished overall as they swept visiting Smyrna.

The No. 1 ranked Lady Blaze beat Lady Bulldogs 53-22 to improve to 16-2 overall and 5-0 in district play, while the No. 2 Blackman boys handed the Bulldogs a 63-55 loss to improve to 18-0 and 5-0.

In the girl's game, Blackman was far from its best offensively. UConn signee Crystal Dangerfield had 12 points and only four in the second half. However, she held Smyrna's Kesha Brady to only seven.

"You're not going to have it every night," said Blackman coach Jessika Jackson. "I couldn't handle it if we had it like that every night, though. Unforced turnovers, bad passes and we didn't come out shooting the ball real well.

"Crystal didn't shoot the ball well. We're spoiled with those floating jumpers of hers going in, but they didn't tonight. She did a great job defensively on Brady. But it's a game we needed to win, and I just told them I don't care how ugly it is. We need to win this game."

Blackman led 24-19 at the half and held Smyrna scoreless for almost five minutes in the third quarter. The Lady Blaze led 34-27 after the third and had an 11-point lead three and half minutes into the fourth.

Senior South Florida signee Jazz Bond had a huge game for the Lady Blaze with 15 points, 16 rebounds and five blocks.

"We weren't there offensively, but we got into them defensively," Bond said. "It was just a sloppy game, but we came through at the end.

"Coach J just told me to get in them. They've got a couple of big posts. I was just blocking out and doing what coach J told me."

In the first half as the Lady Blaze were particularly careless with the ball and missed several easy point-blank shots.

The Lady Bulldogs capitalized and took a 15-14 lead at the end of the first quarter when Diamond Forrest scored in the paint with 26 seconds left.

Blackman trailed 17-16 before going on an 8-0 run to go up 24-17 with 2:55 remaining. The Lady Blaze led 24-19 at the break.

Bond and Dangerfield were the brunt of the offense, scoring nine and eight points, respectively.

Smyrna (11-8, 2-3) was led by Tyra Hughes with 12 points.

BOYS

Blackman 63

Smyrna 55

Teams that share the basketball and make the extra pass are prone to success.

It was certainly the case last Friday night when Blackman (18-0, 5-0) continued its winning ways against the Bulldogs (4-10, 2-3).

The Blaze hit 11 3-pointers, including 10 in the first quarters, and Deonte Alley and Jaellen White hit five apiece.

"We ran really good offense, both set play and out of motion," said Blackman coach Barry Wortman. "We really moved it and we got some open shots for our shooters, and it was good we knocked them in. I thought we had really good balance on offense.

Smyrna trailed just 33-26 early in the third quarter before the Blaze went on a 17-6 run to close out the period with a 50-33 advantage. Blackman led by as many as 20 points.

"We gave them a few turnovers that we shouldn't have, and they're a really good team," said Smyrna coach Brian Turner. "I'm really proud of our kids. We played very hard defensively, we executed and it's exciting to me to get ready for Stewarts Creek and hopefully it will continue it over into the second half."

Blackman led 59-41 with 3:21 left before the Bulldogs closed the game with a 12-4 run.

"I thought they were a really good team," Wortman said. "We watched tape, and coach Turner has got a really nice team. They run a good base offense. We were up 20 or 22 and they kept coming at us. That's a tribute to coach Turner and his team."

Smyrna was led by Trey Wilder with 20 points while Cason Thompson had 12 and Myles Kumrow 10.

Reach sports editor Monte Hale Jr. at mhale@murfreesboropost.com