Newspaper Page Text
The Braselton News
Contact the sports department:
Phone: 706-367-5233
Fax: 706-367-9355
brandon@mainstreetnews.com
IB
Wednesday,
December 26, 2007
Girls' Basketball
Lady Hawks finish second in Big Orange Qassic
MOVING OUT
Megan Basile looks to move the ball down the court in a recent
game. The Lady Hawks are 11-1 overall after losing the champion
ship game in the Big Orange Classic in Alabama last weekend.
Photo by Kristi Reed
Mill Creek to face Norcross Blue Devils January 2
BY KRISTI REED
The Mill Creek High School Lady Hawks
played well, but finished second in last week’s
Hoover Big Orange Classic. The Lady Hawks
(11-1, 5-0) lost the tournament championship
game against Alabama perennial powerhouse
Hoover High School.
The final game of the tournament pitted
Alabama’s number one ranked Hoover Lady
Buccaneers (17-1) against Georgia’s number
two ranked Lady Hawks. The Lady Buccaneers
capitalized on missed scoring opportunities
by the Hawks to clinch a 66-57 victory in
Saturday night’s contest.
“Hoover is a very
Coming up: good team. It was a
WHAT: Mill Creek @ pretty even match up,”
Norcross Lady Hawks’ head
WHERE: Norcross coac h Ashley Phillips
WHEN: Jan. 2@6 said
pm. ...
We did some things
well, but we didn’t
finish some of our scoring opportunities.
That’s what got us. We had some chances to
score and either missed the shots or had a few
cases where we just didn’t make a good pass
or whatever. Part of it was them, part of it was
us,” Phillips said.
The Lady Hawks got off to a strong start in
the tournament on Thursday with a 68-33 win
over the Homewood High School Patriots.
“We played really well. We shot really
well,” Phillips said. “They were a little bit
shorthanded in that game. They only dressed
out seven players. I found out later they had
a couple of kids who had been injured. It was
just a struggle for them. They were just really
shorthanded; it was a bit of a lopsided game.”
On Friday, Mill Creek advanced to the cham
pionship bracket by defeating the Warriors of
Thompson High School 79-64.
“Thompson was a tough game,” Phillips
said. “It was tied at halftime 34-34. They
played really well and we played okay the
first half.”
“We definitely played a lot better in the
second half. We started the second half with
a 10-0 run. Our full court press really helped
us. We used that a lot in the second half.”
At one point during the third period, the
Lady Hawks held a 17-point lead against
the Warriors. Thompson High cut the lead
to 12-before the Lady Hawks rallied to a
15-point victory.
The Lady Hawks will take a few days off
to enjoy the holidays before returning to the
hardwood on December 27. Phillips said his
team will have five practices to prepare for its
next region game against Norcross (3-3, 3-2).
Phillips said he expects a difficult game
against Norcross.
“Norcross is a very physical team. They’re
very athletic and they play really hard,”
Phillips said. “They’ve got a lot of quickness.
It will be a tough game for us. When you go
on the road in a region game, it’s always going
to be a challenge.”
During the break, Phillips hopes to refine
the Lady Hawks’ offense and improve his
team’s ability to handle increased defensive
pressure from opponents.
“The biggest focus for us is to work on
our half court offense and try to get a little
sharper with that,” he said. “When teams play
different defensive strategies, you have to be
able to adjust to what they are doing. That’s
probably the biggest thing we can improve on
right now.”
The Lady Hawks face the Norcross Blue
Devils on January 2 at Norcross. Tipoff is
scheduled for 6 p.m. Mill Creek’s next home
game will be January 4 against region rival
Collins Hill. Tipoff for that game is also
scheduled for 6 p.m.
Bovs’ Basketball
Mill Creek places 5th in Hopkinsville Tournament
Hawks resume play in
Norcross on January 2
BY KRISTI REED
After a heartbreaking overtime
loss on Friday, Mill Creek staged
a strong recovery to win two
consecutive games on the way to
a fifth place finish in the Toyota
of Hopkinsville Invitational in
Hopkinsville, Ken.
The Hawks began tournament
play on Thursday night against
the Pleasure Ridge Park Panthers
of Louisville, Ken. The Panthers
(9-2) pulled away from the Hawks
late in the game to win 64-44.
“PRP is a very good basketball
team,” Hawks’ head coach Phil
Bollier said. “We were only down
about six or eight pretty late in the
game, but they ended up beating
us by 20.”
“In the last part of the half,
they had some shots that made it
look different than it was. We had
about a three-minute spell late in
the game where they took advan
tage of a couple of missed oppor
tunities we had and stretched that
out,” he said.
“They’re a very good basketball
team. At the beginning of the sea
son, they were rated in the top five
in Kentucky,” Bollier said.
Travis Bollier scored
16 points against
the Panthers. Chase
Anderson added nine
points. Manu Ogbuehi
had seven points and
six rebounds. Chris
Avery led in assists
with six for the night.
Friday morning, Mill Creek took
on Hopkinsville High School. The
Hawks trailed late in the fourth,
but Travis Bollier hit two free
throws with four seconds of regu
lation play remaining to send the
game into overtime. The Tigers
(8-1) went on to beat the Hawks
64-55.
Anderson led the Hawks in
scoring against the Tigers with 19
points. Ogbuehi added 11 points
and Robbie Harden scored nine.
Ogbuehi was the top rebound-
Cominq up:
WHAT: Mill Creek @
Norcross
WHERE: Norcross
WHEN: Jan. 2 @7:30
p.m.
“They changed the
whole nature of that
game and hopefully
the direction of our
program for the rest
of this year,”
—Mill Creek basketball
coach Phil Bollier
er with eight boards. Anderson
grabbed five. Avery contributed
five assists.
The Hawks faced off against the
Tigers at the Hopkinsville High
School gym. The home court
advantage proved significant late
in the game. Bollier said his team
played very well as they took the
game into overtime, but ultimate
ly the Tigers prevailed.
Bollier refused to blame the ref
erees for the loss to Hopkinsville,
but game stats seem to indicate a
bias towards the home town team.
In the fourth period, Hopkinsville
went to the free throw line 23
times compared to only
eight trips for Mill
Creek.
Hopkinsville went on
to win the tournament
Saturday evening with
a 77-71 victory over
University Heights.
“You still have to make the
big plays,” Bollier said. “A lot of
times there is adversity and you
just have to battle through it.”
The Hawks did just that as they
came back that evening and beat
Warren Central High School out
of Bowling Green, Ken. by a
score of 69-65.
Anderson led the winning effort
with 22 points and three assists.
T. Bollier and Zach Landis added
twelve points each while Avery
scored another ten for the Hawks.
Landis had five rebounds and
HERE I COME
Mill Creek’s Zach Landis (23) brings the ball back down the court during a recent game. Landis scored 12 points, and five rebounds
and seven assists during a tournament game against Kentucky’s Warren Central in the Toyota of Hopkinsville Christmas Invitational
last week. Mill Creek went on to defeat Warren Central 69-65. Photo by Kristi Reed
seven assists and T. Bollier made
four rebounds and three assists.
“[Warren Central] has got a
very strong tradition in Kentucky,”
Bollier said. “They have won the
state championship two out of the
last four years.”
The Hawks led the Dragons
29-12 in the first period. Warren
Central rallied and took the lead
before Mill Creek recovered
momentum to secure the 69-65
victory.
On Saturday, the Hawks
faced in-state competition from
the Colquitt County Packers of
Moultrie, Ga.
“We started off a little bit slow,
but then we played three quar
ters of the best basketball we’ve
played,” Bollier said. “The first
quarter, it looked like we had not
gotten enough sleep, played a
bunch of basketball, ate too much
food and came in pretty flat.
“We called a time out and we
told our kids that what we are
trying to do is be more consistent.
We told them it’s time for us to
step up and play,” he said.
The Hawks responded by out-
scoring the Packers 26-7 in the
second period on the way to a
76-54 victory.
“They changed the whole nature
of that game and hopefully the
direction of our program for the
rest of this year,” Bollier said.
Anderson continued an out
standing tournament performance
with 27 points and 9 rebounds.
T. Bollier finished strong as well
with 16 points, four rebounds
and five assists. Avery added 16
points and five assists in the win
ning effort.
Bollier said the tournament was
an important experience for his
team.
“Walking out of the tourna
ment, we felt it was very valu
able in the main two areas we
wanted to improve on: team unity
and team toughness,” Bollier said.
“We want to be mentally and
physically tougher and be more
united in what we do. I think we
accomplished that. We’re looking
forward to taking some time off
and then coming back in January
and going into battle again.”
The Hawks resume practices on
December 27. Mill Creek will
hold five practices before playing
its next game against region oppo
nent Norcross.
As Mill Creek prepares to face
the Blue Devils, controlling the
ball and avoiding turnovers will
be the primary focus.
“We just need to take care of the
basketball,” Bollier said.
“[Norcross] is a really powerful
team. What they’ve done is press
people and people have had a lot
of trouble from the pressure. They
take advantage of turnovers and
make them easy scoring oppor
tunities. We want to be able to
be tough with the basketball,” he
said.
Mill Creek will play the Blue
Devils at Norcross on January
2. Tipoff is set for 7:30 p.m.
The next home game will be on
January 4 when the Hawks face
Collins Hill. Game time is sched
uled for 7:30 p.m.