About Lake Oconee news. (Greensboro, GA) 199?-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 11, 2015)
T. Michael Stone Sports Editor Is GSU's football team best in state? Football combines the two worst things about America: It is violence punctuated by committee meetings George F. Will T. Michael Stone/Staff From left, Salina Fortune works the post; Tyra Smith dribbles along the baseline; Sydney Nash sets up for shot near the basket; Alexis"Pumpkin" Brown drives to the basket; Tatyana Davis goes in for a layup. Lady Dogs whip defending champs x 2 After my alma mater waxed the Georgia Southern Eagles at the Poultry Bowl in Stinkboro last week, the Georgia State Panthers become bowl eligible for the first time in school history. Our guys will play San Jose State in the Cure Bowl. Most of the world could care less, I suppose, but that game is far more important to me than Oklahoma versus Clemson or Michigan State versus Alabama. Quite frankly, I don’t care who wins the national championship anymore. It’s always the same teams and same announc ers and the same sponsors. Blah, blah, blah. But change is-a-com- ing, brothers and sisters. Change is-a-coming. Alabama and Oklahoma won’t always be contend ers. Back in 1895 the big four was Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Penn. They had won every “national championship” in the early days of college football until Lafayette College in Pennsylvania upset the apple cart that year by tying Princeton 0-0 in the second game of the season and finishing the season with an 11-0-1 record. They were named co champs along with Princ eton, which finished 8-2. Later Yale was added to list of champs when they went 16-0, beating Princeton 24-0. See, this national championship business has never made much sense. Scheduling was quite different in those days, though. The Leopards played and defeated West Virginia three times . . . on three consecutive days: Oct. 15-17. In 1901, Michigan joined Harvard and Yale as co-champs. Minnesota got in on the act in 1904, and LSU made its first ap pearance in 1908. By 1914, the Ivy League SEE GSU » C6 T. Michael Stone michael@lakeoconeenews.us The weary travelers didn’t look so weary upon their return to the Morgan County High School gym, did they? After dispatching Laney (the de fending AAA champions) 78-69 in Augusta on Friday night, the Lady Bulldogs returned to Madison and gave the home crowd a thrilling 53-46 win over another basketball heavy weight, the Buford Lady Wolves the reigning AAAA cham pions. ‘We worked hard all week in practice for this,” Morgan County varsity head coach Joshua Reeves said. ‘We tried to prepare for both teams at the same time because we knew we had to go back-to-back with them. The girls did every last thing I asked them to do. “ Both wins are impressive, but the Buford win might be even sweeter for Reeves as it demonstrated that Lady Bulldogs are rounding into the team they’ll need to be when post season arrives. “Tonight our conditioning was really important, “ Reeves said. “I told them the second half of this game is going to be the hard half, because that’s when the soreness is going to kick in; that’s when the tiredness is going to kick in. We got home late (following the Laney game on the road) and came right back here. We came back in that third quarter and didn’t score a point, but we only gave up 10 points. It feels good to beat both of them, but it feels better to know we prepared for them. The girls reacted perfectly. They hit the shots they were supposed to hit, and they ran the defenses they were supposed to run.” The Buford game was a genuine barn-burner from start to finish with the Lady Bulldogs taking the lead and the Lady Wolves chipping away at it the entire game. Nash gave the Lady Bulldogs an early lead with a 3-pointer, but Buford’s Chandler Hall matched it to tie the score. SEE LADY DOGS » C2 MORGAN COUNTY T. Michael Stone/Staff Top, Jermaine Alexander prepares to take a shot under the rim; bottom, Emmanuel Little drives to the hoop. Dogs keep wolves at bay T. Michael Stone Michael@lakeoconeenews.us The Morgan County Bulldogs came within a point of whipping unde feated Laney on the road Friday night and then turned around and beat a tough Buford squad 57-48 Saturday afternoon in front of the home crowd in Madison. “It’s tough when you go against two programs that traditionally are very good and two coaches who are able to get the most out of their players,” Morgan County head coach Jamond Sims said. “So we have to make sure the kids and the coaching staff are all on the same page and ready to accept the challenge.” According to Sims, the Buford Wolves came out in a triangle and two defense in an effort to neutralize Morgan County standouts Jailyn Ingram and Devori- ous Brown. But the Bulldogs have many weapons once again this year. Jordan Ford took ad vantage of the ploy and dropped 10 points on the Wolves in the first period. The first score was a 3-pointer from the baseline followed by a relatively un contested layup. Then Ford hit another 3-pointer. Emmanuel Little followed with another trey and Morgan County had jumped out to an 11-3 lead that they would not relin quish. That’s not to say the Wolves went away to howl in the corner. After a stick back by Sahil Patel and a 3-pointer by Will Springer, the Wolves had cut the lead to 16-12. Ingram hit a sweet fadeaway jumper to get Morgan back up by 6, but Patel proved danger ous under the basket and stuck in another score off a rebound to cut the lead to 4. Early in the second period, D. J. Fisher drained a 3-pointer, but Alex Jones answered with a 3-pointer for Buford. Ford got the crowd excited with a dunk and Alec Woodard hit a 3-pointer to get the Bulldogs back on top by 7 again at the half. The Bulldogs ran a couple of plays to Jermaine Alex ander at the outset of the second half, and he scored on both. A little later Brown hit a shot from beyond the 3-point arc that put Morgan up by 12 points, but Will Springer answered with a trey of his own. Ingram hit a jump shot, and Springer answered with a jumper from the baseline. The Wolves were stubborn, but the Bulldogs kept them at bay, heading into the fourth period with a 42-31 lead. Ingram hit a 3-pointer from the wing to give Morgan County a 45-32 lead, and Ford made a runner in the lane to make it 47-33 with Buford’s 2 points coming on foul shots. However, Buford kept after it and cut the lead to 49-42 with 2:30 left. The Wolves got no closer than that, though. And when Brown slammed home Morgan County’s final bucket of the game and gave the Bulldogs a 57-46 lead, the crowd went nuts. That’s what they came to see. Ford lead the Bulldogs with a game high 23 points, while Ingram had 9 and Fisher had 8. Brown and Little each scored 5. Alexander finished with 4 points. Patel led the Wolves with 22 points, most of them under the basket. Springer added 8 and Jones 6. The Bulldogs had lost to undefeated Laney 65-64 on the previous night in Augusta. The Bulldogs lost both regular season games to Laney last year only to beat the Wildcats in the state semi-final. The region schedule got underway this week on the road against East Jackson. T. Michael Stone/Staff Top, Jailyn Ingram takes a jumper from the wing; bottom, Jordan Ford takes a short jumper in the lane. • CHI LDRECHEVY.COM • CHI LDRECHEVY.COM • CHI LDRECH irjfl Unto *7,500s UP TO 000 »io t SE GMC SIERRAS NEW 2016 BUICK iZlONLColi mbiaSt M II d in I
