Newspaper Page Text
Page 4 - Wednesday, December 13, 2023
The Sylvania Times
thesy lvaniatimes .com
SPORTS
LADY GAMECOCK BASKETBALL AT 6-1
MISSED CHANCE TO BE 7-0
Off to one of their best starts in history at 6-1, the SCHS Lady Gamecock cagers of
Stephanie Davis missed a chance at 7-0 with 16 missed free throws in a 54-53 loss to
homestanding Savannah High on December 5. It was the team’s opening region contest.
Following the loss, the team rebounded with a resounding 79-28 region win over Claxton
and a 64-47 win over Jenkins County. Both of the wins were in the Harold Lee Scott
Gymnasium. The last games before a holiday break will be Friday with a return bout against
Jenkins County in Millen and Saturday in Brooklet against SEB. There will not be another
game until January 5.
Two nights after blowing their region opener to Savannah High, the Lady Gamecocks put
an exclamation point on a win over the team that defeated them twice a season ago, including
in the region tournament. Running up a 19-5 first quarter lead and a 37-7 intermission lead,
the Red and White had an easy time with the Lady Tigers this time around. The biggest
sour point was an 8-22 performance from the foul line. Aliliah Scott led the scoring with 24
points including seven three-pointers, while Jaliah Roberts had 15 and Rayven Tyler 12. Ten
different players had points and all 14 on the roster had stats. Roberts also had five steals
and Olivia Jackson four.
The Lady Gamecocks let a sure win escape them in Savannah on December 5 when they
missed 16 free throws (18-34) in a 54-53 come from ahead loss to the Lady Jackets. SCHS
led 40-29 after three quarters but could not put the Blue and White away. The home team
outscored the Red and White by a 25-13 margin in the final stanza. In the final eight minutes
the Lady Gamecocks missed eight free throws. Roberts led the team with 17 points and 10
rebounds. Scott had 13. Jackson (8), Scott (9), and Kayla Oglesby (6) also were strong on
the boards. Scott also contributed six steals.
Saturday night before a large crowd in the SCHS gym, the Red and White allowed visiting
Jenkins County to hang around for two quarters, leading but 24-19 at halftime. However a
20-11 third quarter opened things up for the 64-47 win. Scott was again the high pointer with
23 while Kyla Oglesby had 11, and Roberts 15. Jackson had seven rebounds as did Roberts.
Tyler had six steals.
GAMECOCK WRESTLERS TRAVEL TO
DUBLIN FOR THE
SHAMROCK SCUFFLE THIS WEEK END
AROUND
I say this with great regularity. There are
weeks when just nothing reaches out and
grabs me to say, “write about me.” This
is such a week. What follows is a various
sundry of topics in no particular order and,
possibly, with no particular significance.
Bear with me please.
This is significant - the Lady Gamecocks
of Stephanie Davis are off to a great start
at 6-1 as of this writing. It should be 7-0.
Anyway, what was the best- ever start
for the Pullets? Here is how it goes. The
best actually best-ever start was 2006-07
when Jennifer Acree’s troops started at
11-0 and finished 25-6. Other really good
starts, counting all before the second loss
of the season are 2021-22 (finished 21-4)
and 2008-09 (finished 19-8) each of which
started 8-1 and then 2005-06 which started
at 6-1 and finished at 29-3. It is possible
to have the second best start ever by this
weekend. But I should not count those
Pullets before they hatch should I?
Well GSU kicks off the 2023 bowl season
on Saturday when they line up against Ohio
University in the Myrtle Beach Bowl. That
YOU MAY THINK THIS IS
A ‘GRASPING AT STRAWS’
COLUMN
Burton Kemp
Unless otherwise noted all
articles in Sports are written
by Burton Kemp, Sports Editor
kick is supposed to be at 11:00 am. The
Eagles tend to do quite well against teams
from the MAC. Maybe that will continue.
They need something good to happen in the
last two months of the season. I said it last
week, the Sun Belt leads the FCS in bowl
teams with 12. Only Southern Mississippi
and Louisiana-Monroe are not in a bowl.
After the SBC comes the ACC with 11, the
SEC, Big 10, and Big 12 with nine each and
so on and so on. Early lines have SBC teams
favored in just four of those 12 games.
Obviously with its horrendous four game
losing streak GSU is not favored. These
bowls can maybe help with the three-star
recruits. That is usually the apex of Sun Belt
recruiting. For the record, GSU went 2-6
against bowl teams. All except the loss to
Wisconsin involved a SBC team.
I have mentioned the concept of Name,
Image, Likeness for college athletes before.
Georgia Southern is about to have an NIL
store. If I understand what I read, through
this NIL store, which works with something
called Campus Ink, an athlete at GSU
who wishes may have something called a
“digital locker room” through which one
may purchase various forms of apparel with
the NIL of that particular athlete. If a GSU
athlete wishes to participate then you can
buy a t-shirt, hoodie, etc. with something
relative to that individual on it (last name
with jersey number, etc.). Pretty cool, of
course for an athlete to make money, they
have to impress potential customers enough
to get them to buy. For most the apparel
will not be ready made, it will be made after
order time.
For the GHSA football state
championships the timing is odd. The
really, really big boys (Walton v. Milton,
i.e. who cares?) play at 7 tonight and
Coffee and Creekside (AAAAA) play this
afternoon. Nearby Savannah Christian
(AAA) plays/ed at 1 today. Anyway, for
me the most interesting game of the week
was on Monday when Swainsboro sought a
measure of revenge against Prince Avenue
in our own ADI game. The A D2 game is
Manchester v. Bowdon. We need a South
Georgia team in for it to be legit don’t we?
The games are during the week so that they
could return to Mercedes
Atlanta’s Falcons had to have this weekend
so they could blow another game at the
end. Before the Swainsboro-Prince contest,
SEB went for its third consecutive flag state
championship. This is only the fourth year
of the sport. Remember that they beat Portal
for their first title. The Lady Jackets are
working on a dynasty.
If you have been following my SCHS
Athletic History columns, I hope that you
have enjoyed them. A lot of folks have
told me that they have. They are probably
going to cease in a couple of weeks, for a
while anyway. I do need to go back and
pick up the 1953-54 school year. I skipped
it because there was no Panorama for 1954
thus no pictures and none of the information
that sometimes comes from a yearbook.
Apparently no one in the Class of 1954
wanted to be the editor. At least that is what
I have been told. When I skipped that year
I really did not plan to keep going as far as
I have to this point (1965-66). Anyway...
With injuries mounting, the SCHS wrestling Gamecocks
of Griffen Greene were at the Rebel Invitational Traditional
Tournament hosted by Effingham County last weekend.
Hopefully recouping from a rough and physical week, the
Gamecocks will head to Dublin this Friday and Saturday
for the Shamrock Scuffle before going to North Augusta SC
for the Rumble on the River on December 21-22. Like the
Rebel Invitational, both are traditional tournaments. Until
the Area 3-A Duals on January 13 at Bryan County, all
tournaments are traditional.
Senior David McFarland (157) was the lone SCHS
medalist with a fourth place finish, losing twice (0-6 and 2-7)
to third place finisher Richmond Hill’s Caden Whittaker.
His four wins came against Joey Zettier of Effingham,
Ja’Cori Cope of Statesboro, Xander Argentinis of BC, and
Gallaghe Patrick of Waccamaw SC. Only the win over
Patrick (13-6) was not a pin. On the season McFarland is
21-4 and has 135 for his career. Behind McFarland was
freshman Breylen Daniels (190) who went 3-2 with wins
over Benjamin Kaner of Jenkins High, Jacob Carrasquil of
Sandalwood FL, and Nick Ford of South Effingham.
Winning two matches each in Springfield were freshman
Jason Newman (126) and Cody Cochran (215). Picking
up a win were Jason Zheng (165), Brody Taylor (175),
and Jemiah Stewart (190). Also wrestling on Friday and
Saturday were Riley Oglesby (132), Ryder Rankin (138),
Isaac Maust (144), Ben Warren (165), and Lance Daniel
(175). For the tournament, the team was missing Sam
Robbins (120), Wyatt Sowell (144), and Bo Doss (132) who
were out with injuries while Rankin went out with an injury
originally sustained against Effingham on December 16.
Hosting their second dual meet of the season, the
Gamecocks saw Burke County and Effingham County visit
on December 16. Against BCHS the Roosters led throughout
but when it worked out that the last three matches were all
SCHS forfeits the Gamecocks lost 42-36. All 36 points for
the Gamecocks came from pins which were recorded by
Newman, Rankin, Maust, McFarland, Zheng, and Taylor.
Things did not go so well in their second match in a lopsided
loss to ECHS, the Red and White got pins from Newman
and McFarland.
After missing
more than
a year with
a torn ACL,
senior Jemiah
Stewart (190)
is up against
Effingham's
Armahd
Coney. Stewart
won by pin
(photo by Nikki
McFarland)
Freshman
Breylon Daniels
(190) wrestles
Effingham's
Jayden Evans.
Daniels went
3-2 on the
weekend in
the Rebel
Invitational
(photo by Nikki
McFarland)
Senior David
McFarland
(157) with
his fourth
place medal
from among
22 wrestlers
in the Rebel
Invitational.
McFarland
is now 21-4
on the season
(photo
by Nikki
McFarland)
Junior Kody
Cochran
(215) is on
his way to
a pin over
Brunswick’s
Tripp
Rowell
in Rebel
Invitational
action
(photo
by Nikki
McFarland)
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