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HOUSTON DAILY JOURNAL Chlck-fil-a Bear Brawl Boys bracket Wlram Thursday, 5:30 p.m. Game 4 ' Friday, 5:30 p.m. Westslde Game 7 I I Thursday, 8:30 p.m. Game 5 Warner Robins Saturday, 8:30 p.m. ______ Hawkinsville Game 12 Champion Wednesday, 5:30 p.m. Game 1 ——————————- Northside Friday, 8:30 p.m. Peach County Game 8 I Wednesday, 8:30 p.m. Game 2 Houston County Saturday, 5:30 p.m. Game 11 third place Loser game 1 Thursday, 2:30 p.m. Game 3 Loser name 2 Saturday. 2:30 p.m. Loser game 4 Game w Finn place Friday, 2:30 p.m. Game 6 loser game 5 Girls bracket Hawkinswille Wednesday, 4 p.m. Game 1 Warner Robins , 7 Friday, 7 p.m. Campbeli Game 7 I I Thursday, 7 p.m. Game 4 Percy Saturday, 7 p.m. Bye Game 10 First North Clayton North Clayton Thursday, 4 p m Peach County Game 3 \ Wednesday, 7 p.m. Game 2 Houston County loser game 7 Loser 080161 Saturday, 4 p.m. Game 9 Third Friday, 1 p.m. Game 5 loser game 2 loser game 5 Saturday, 1 p.m. loser game 4 Game 8 j Fifth Friday, 4 p.m. Game 6 Loser game 3 SPORTS WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 20, 2006 ♦ BRAWL From page iB against Peach County at 8:30 tonight. Coincidence? Clever scheduling? “We don’t play (Peach) in the regular season,” said Nix. “Warner Robins did, and Perry plays them in the regular season. We didn’t get to schedule them this time. I just thought we needed to play them.” This isn’t going to*be your 2005-2006 Peach County Trojans with Henton and Chris Slaughter having graduated. It may not even be the complete 2006-2007 ver sion of the Trojans since Peach County just finished winning a second state foot ball championship on Saturday. But there still were some Trojan bas ketball games with the football playoffs still in progress. That included a split with Warner Robins when the Demons too were missing several components that were still playing football. “I don’t know how many players (Peach) had playing football,” said Nix. “It looks like they have a pretty good team.” When looking at the rest of the Bear Brawl boys field, just the county match ups alone would make for an exciting event. Warner Robins and Perry split ear lier games with the Demons beating the Panthers on Thursday on a Kenny Willis 3-pointer with three seconds left. Houston County just finished a split with Perry. “This is where (Warner Robins) always seems to play well,” said Nix. “Perry has been playing good basketball. Northside is just coming out of the football playoffs, so I don’t know what they will be doing.” As for out-of-county visitors, there is Hawkinsville of Class A and Hiram, which came to the Bear Den last year and won two games. Westside-Macon has a little winning streak going. Other first-round matchups are Hawkinsville-Northside, Hiram-Perry and Westside-Warner Robins. The Bears, with its football program playing into the quarterfinals, are just now getting its full squad together. Nix had six in all come from the girdiron and steadily worked them all into the lineup. “It looks like everybody’s getting into the basketball way of things,” said Nix. “Every year I’ve been here it’s been a real good tournament. “I want to win every game in it, but we’ve played one game with our full team, Saturday against Perry. I want to use (the Brawl) to get ready for January and February.” For the Houston County Lady Bears, the Chick-Fil-A Bear Brawl was a bit more of a pleasant memory. With Candace Clark winning the Most Valuable Player award, Houston’s girls swept through the compe tition and kept one more first-place trophy home. In fact, the Lady Bears have owned the Bear Brawl four times in the last five years. “That’s what we like to go in thinking, that we’re going to win it,” said head girls coach Sid Baxley. “Most of the girls who have been here the last four years have won more than one of them. And the good thing about it, every one we’ve won, we’ve had a different MVP” Houston County also carried the momen tum of winning the Bear Brawl into the postseason with a championship run in the Region 1-AAAAA tournament. Amid this year’s field for the Bear Brawl is Warner Robins High, a team Houston County must contend with later in region competition; opening-round opponent Peach County (7 tonight), Perry, North Clayton and Campbell, the No. 2-ranked team in Class AAAAA. “Perry is a high-quality team,” said Baxley about the club his girls have already played twice this year. “Hawkinsville hasn’t been in it for a while. North Clayton made it to the finals three years ago. We have a strong field.” But for the Lady Bears it starts with Peach, a team Warner Robins beat twice already. In a game held at Warner Robins, the Demonettes jumped out on top big early. However, the Lady Trojans didn’t give up and kept the final score at 15 points, 64-49. “They’re athletic,” said Baxley. “They can run, quick jumpers. We have to keep them off the boards. I saw them play Warner Robins, and they shot lay-up after lay-up. The key is if they get off to a slow start, take advantage of it, try to build a lead and hold on.” The presence of a club like Campbell will give both Houston and Warner Robins a look at one of the teams to beat in this high classification. “They came looking to us,” said Baxley about Campbell’s interest in playing in the Bear Brawl. “I think the word has spread with Hiram’s boys up there and North Clayton. They know they can come down here and get some good competition. Usually an exciting tournament is the result.” Other opening games for the girls side are Hawkinsville-Warner Robins and Campbell-Perry. North Clayton plays the Houston-Peach winner on Thursday. The Lady Bears are coming off a tight five-point win at home against Perry giv ing them a regular-season sweep. “We’re doing some things real well,” said Baxley. “We’ve won three in a row. Now we’re not shooting free throws well. Anybody who was at the game Saturday could see that. Other than that we’re play ing decent and getting better. “We want to make sure we get better every night (in the Brawl). We have region play coming up in January. We like win ning the Bear Brawl, but it’s not as impor tant as doing well in the region.” 3B