Newspaper Page Text
Sports
Wednesday, February 6, 1985
Tournament time
rolls around for
Forsyth squads
Tournament time is often referred to as the “second
season” in sports. The successes and failures of the
regular season are put aside, used only to determine
what position or seeding will be filled in a fierce
competition where a win means a chance to climb all
the way to the top while a defeat brings about a
heartbreaking end to a season of hopes and dreams.
That time has arrived for Forsyth County’s fresh
man and varsity basketball teams as well as for the
Bulldogs’ varsity wrestling squad.
Last weekend actually marked the beginning of the
tournament season, as South Forsyth’s boys and
Otwell’s girls captured titles in the annual Seventh
and Eighth Grade Basketball Tournament at Dawson
ville.
The junior high schools’ elder teams will follow suit
this week as the Ninth Grade Basketball Tournament
gets underway Thursday at South Forsyth.
The tournaments will open with South Forsyth’s
Lady Gators facing North Forsyth at 4 p.m.; OtweU’s
Bullpups playing North Habersham at 5:30 p.m.;
Otwell’s Lady Bullpups going up against North Hab
ersham at 6:30 p.m.; and the South Forsyth Gators
squaring off against North Forsyth at 8 p.m.
Winners in Thursday’s opening round action will
meet in the tournament’s championship games on
Friday night, while the losers will face one another in
the consolation round.
On Saturday, Forsyth County’s wrestlers will com
pete in the Area & Wrestling Tournament at Brook
wood. Matches will begin at 10 a.m. with the
consolation finals set for 4:30 p.m. and championship
matches slated to begin at 5:30 p.m.
Seven teams will be involved in this year’s tourna
ment, including Berkmar (the defending region
champion), Brookwood, Central Gwinnett, Norcross,
Parkview and South Gwinnett, in addition to Forsyth.
Wrestlers who gain the consolation finals or the
championship matches, thereby finishing at least in
their respective weight divisions, will advance to the
Class AAAA State Wrestling Tournament at Stone
Mountain, Feb. 15-16.
Play in the Sub-region 8-AAAA West Basketball
Tournament will begin next Tuesday at Berkmar.
Opening round pairings and game times will not be
determined until after Friday night’s season finales
(when Johnson hosts Forsyth).
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Adam Craft drives to the hoop in championship game against Otwell
Lady Bulldogs falter in
rematch with N. Gwinnett
By Greg Little
Sports Editor
SUWANEE North Gwinnett’s
inside tandem of Laveme Cook and
Brenda Terry assaulted the Forsyth
County Lady Bulldogs for 32 points to
trigger team to a 48-35 victory last
Saturday night.
Forsyth found itself plagued by
early offensive problems, as a shoot
ing touch which was slow to warm up
allowed North Gwinnett to lay back in
its zone defense and guard against
the Lady Bulldogs’ attempts to work
the ball inside.
Meanwhile, Cook and Terry were
repeatedly sneaking inside the For
syth defense for a variety of layups
and short jump shots that consis
tently found their mark and propelled
North Gwinnett to a 12-3 first quarter
advantage.
“We just couldn’t get anything
going offensively. It’s that simple,”
said Forsyth Coach Frank Fowler,
who noted that his team’s offense
suffered from an illness that cur
tailed the effectiveness of junior for
ward Kathy Diggle.
The Lady Bulldogs gradually over
came their slow start in the second
period, and kept pace with their hosts
from that point on. But keep pace was
all they could do, as Cook and Terry
continued their inside success to fend
off Forsyth’s attempts to battle back
from the early deficit.
“We didn’t go out with the intensity
we needed to have,” said Fowler.
“We had played four good games in a
row, so maybe it was time for an off
game. But you should never have an
off game as far as effort is concerned.
“We didn’t do a good job defensi
vely of denying them the pass in
side.”
Cook led all scorers with 17 points,
while Terry finished with 15. Sutko
paced Forsyth’s offense with 14
points while guard Lisa Waldroop
added eight.
Forsyth (6-14) will close its regular
season on Friday when it travels to
Gainesville to play Johnson.
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Tim McCallister looks for teammate to pass to against N. Gwinnett
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Forsyth County News
Kerensa Shoemake brings ball downcourt
Gators , Lady Bullpups
claim tournament titles
By Greg Little
Sports Editor
DAWSONVILLE - On one end of
the Dawson County Gymnasium
court, South Forsyth’s fans and par
ents crowded around their Gators
team for a jubilant net-cutting cere
mony, while Otwell’s fans revelled
with their Lady Bullpups in a similar
scene on the other end of the floor.
The gym was still alive with the
buzz of excitement that had reached a
f ervored pitch during the Seventh and
Eighth Grade Basketball Tourna
ment’s championship games Satur
day night, in which the South Forsyth
Gators had edged Otwell 34-32 to
offset the Otwell Lady Bullpups’ 36-31
title win over South Forsyth.
In the boys’ game, a pair of Donny
Anderson foul shots with :03 remain
ing lifted the Gators to a thrilling
victory over Otwell, which had over
come a six-point fourth quarter defi
cit to draw into a 32-32 tie on Robby
Mathis’ jump shot just nine seconds
earlier.
South Forsyth had led 30-24 when
Hank Gravitt connected on a jump
shot for Otwell with 4:08 left, a shot
which began a three-minute scoreless
streak for both teams. Todd Armis
tead broke the scoring silence with an
offensive rebound and followup shot
that pulled Otwell to within 30-28 at
the :58 mark.
Dogs even record
at 10-10 with win
over N. Gwinnett
By Greg Little
Sports Editor
SUWANEE The Forsyth County
Bulldogs went into last Saturday’s
game with North Gwinnett with an
opportunity to push their win total
into double figures and move back to
the .500 level for the first time since
the new year’s arrival.
Spurred by the thoughts of that
opportunity, the Bulldogs overcame a
sluggish start to overtake their North
Gwinnett namesakes by intermission
and then fought off repeated
comeback attempts in the second half
to walk away with a 63-55 victory that
upped their season record to 10-10.
And the Bulldogs accomplished the
feat with defense.
After his team opened to a slow
start that allowed North Gwinnett to
assume a 23-11 second quarter lead,
Forsyth Coach Doug Fields ordered
his team to a pressing defense “to
wake us up and get us going.”
The defensive strategy did that and
more, as the newly awakened Bull
dogs outscored North Gwinnett 18-2
the final six minutes of the half (14-0
in the final four minutes) to catapult
themselves to a 29-25 halftime lead.
“I think we went into the game too
relaxed. We had already beaten
(North Gwinnett) once at home this
season, and we had that in the back of
our minds. We played their game
early and got behind,” said Fields.
“I wanted something to get us
going and set a faster tempo, so we
went to the zone press. If you go back
and look at it, we really didn’t force
them into that many turnovers with
the press, but what it did was take
them away from their game plan.
Speeding up the tempo was not to
their liking and I think it turned
things to our favor.”
Tournament
Results
Girls Championship Game
Otwell 36
South Forsyth 31
Boys Championship Game
South Forsyth 34
Otwell 32
Girls Consolation Game
North Forsyth 20
Dawson Co. 17
Boys Consolation Game
North Forsyth 27
Dawson Co. 15
South Forsyth point guard Adam
Craft made good on a pair of foul
shots seconds later to open the Ga
tors’ cushion back to four points, but
jump shots by Gravitt and Mathis in
the final 30 seconds knotted the score
and moved the possibility of an over
time closer to reality.
South Forsyth Coach Allen Prit
chett called for a timeout after Ma
this’ shot, but his players failed to see
his sideline signal and hurried the
ball downcourt. A scramble for the
ball resulted in Anderson being fouled
with three seconds left, and the eighth
grader stepped to the line for a pres
sure-packed one-and-one free throw
opportunity.
Slaton’s win streak stopped
by Berkmar champion Romine
Forsyth County’s varsity wrestlers
suffered through a rough weekend
that saw the Bulldogs drop a pair of
lopsided decisions to Region 8-AAAA
powers Berkmar and Brookwood and
saw senior Mike Slaton’s 20-match
winning streak halted by his first
defeat of the season.
Slaton’s loss was no embarrass
ment, however, as it came to Berk
mar’s defending Class AAAA state
champion Scott Romine, who re
corded a second period pin of For
syth’s co-captain.
Berkmar, which features two other
returning state finalists among its
lineup, placed fifth in last year’s
Class AAAA State Wrestling Tourna
ment and showed why it is once again
one of the state’s best with a 63-0
defeat of the Bulldogs.
Forsyth’s closest chance for a vic
tory came in the 188-lb. weight class,
where junior David Price wrestled a
strong match only to suffer an 11-6
defeat.
Sophomore Tim Halyak (121-lb.),
senior Heath Williams (129-lb.) and
sophomore Timmie Shadbum (135-
The pendulum began its swing to
Forsyth’s favor with a steal and two
handed slam dunk by senior center
Randy Chester that took the first
nibble of the North Gwinnett lead,
making the score 23-13 with 5:22 left
in the half.
Four minutes later, senior Tim
McCallister connected on a 17-foot
jumper to knot the score at 25-25 and
the wave of momentum reached full
crest as a rebound followup by Ches
ter and a pair of foul shots by junior
guard Derrick Gilbert sent the Bull
dogs into the locker room with a 29-25
advantage.
The inside play of Chester pro
pelled Forsyth’s lead to 39-31 midway
through the third period.
But North Gwinnett then began to
solve the Forsyth press, playing with
the game’s fast pace instead of in
spite of it. Forsyth’s hosts reeled off
nine straight points and took over the
lead 40-39 on Chip Rogers’ rebound
followup with 1:57 left in the period.
Undaunted by North Gwinnett’s
surge, the Bulldogs retaliated with a
driving basket by Gilbert to reclaim
the lead and then used a pair of long
jumpers by McCallister and Gilbert
to hold a 45-40 advantage by quarter’s
end.
Forsyth continued its run in the
fourth quarter as junior Glenn Sutko
sank a pair of field goals and sopho
more Brad Elzey scored on an offen
sive rebound to send the Bulldogs’
lead to 51-41.
As Fields noted, the offensive
streak was keyed by another de
fensive change.
“They began to beat the press in
the second half, so we went back to
the man defense to see if we could
catch them off guard. When we went
Continued on Page 2B
Anderson sank both free throws to
put the Gators up 34-32, a score which
stood as the final victory margin
when the Bullpups’ last-gasp attempt
from halfcourt flew long of its mark.
Pritchett was understandably
proud of his team’s achievement,
“They surprised a lot of people. They
kept getting better and better as the
season went along, and they ended up
winning nine of their last 10 games,”
said Pritchett. Three of those wins
came against Otwell.
“The third time is the one that’s
really hard to win. ‘lt’s hard to beat a
good team three times in a row.
Otwell played hard and had a good
game plan. But South had lost to
Otwell in the finals the last two years,
and I think they just made up their
minds it wasn’t going to happen
again,” Pritchett said.
The Gators coach especially noted
the play of Craft and the development
of his inside players Ernie Ford and
Jason Dudley in the team’s success.
“Adam really controls our offense
and makes things happen for us be
cause he handles the ball so well,”
Pritchett said of Craft, the game’s
leading scorer with 14 points. “And
the big boys worked real hard to get
better and improve this year. They
came on strong.”
Ford finished with 10 points for the
Continued on Page 2B
lb.) avoided pins by their Berkmar
opponents, but like Price, were vic
tims of losses by decisions.
From its early afternoon competi
tion with Berkmar, in Lilbum, the
Bulldogs travelled to Snellville to
face Brookwood, who administered
the Forsyth squad a 41-18 defeat.
Slaton did manage to return to his
winning ways with a 5-2 decision over
Brad Lockridge in a closely contested
match that saw a second period near
fall prove to be the eventual differ
ence.
Slaton’s win in the 170-lb. weight
class was one of four individual victo
ries for Bulldog wrestlers in the
match.
Sophomore Joey Gamer set a team
record for most points in a match,
outscoring Brookwood’s Incrocci 17-8
in the 115-lb. match, before finally
recording a third-period pin.
Forsyth’s next win did not come
until the 158-lb. division, in which
senior Tommy Murray used a pair of
third period near falls to claim a 12-10
Continued on Page 2B
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