Newspaper Page Text
Forsyth County News - Wednesday, February 4,1998
Sports
Area IV
wrestling,
Bth-grade
tourney
coming up
A huge weekend is ahead for
Forsyth County winter sports
fans.
Prep wrestling will begin work
ing towards a peak statewide with
the Area tournaments. For the
first time ever, South Forsyth will
host the Area IV event, scheduled
to begin Friday and conclude
Saturday.
Class AA teams from around
northeast Georgia, including of
course, the Forsyth Central
Bulldogs, will be competing.
And, once again, North Forsyth
will be hosting the Class A Area
IV meet. Wrestlers from nine
schools will be attempting to
qualify for the states at Raider
Arena on Saturday.
Middle-school basketball action
will move to Dawson County this
week as the Tigers will host the
eighth-grade tournament, once
again including North Forsyth,
Otwell and South Forsyth middle
schools.
The event is slated to start
Thursday, with semifinals Friday
and consolation and champi
onship games Saturday.
Add to all that a rematch
between South and Central in
basketball, this time in the
Bulldogs’ new arena, and you
have the makings of a huge sports
weekend.
For more details of these events,
including a preview of the Area
wrestling meets, see Friday’s
Forsyth County News.
Raider boys win
After a night game on the
road, the North Forsyth Raider
basketball team traveled to
Gainesville Saturday morning
and defeated the Riverside Blue
Devils, 43-27.
Matt Shelter led North in scor
ing with 11 points, Russell
Pinson and Robbie Nason each
had eight. For more on the
game and Tuesday’s prep
action, see Friday’s FCN.
I THU. FSB. 5I
■ Rasketlxsli I
I Dawson Co. Stfrgrade basketball |
I tournament, first round girls and I
I boys games, 4 p.m. {pairings to I
I be announced). I
I North Forsyth JV boys at Cass I
I Tournament, 7:30 p.m. I
I HU. FSB. 6 I
■ 'I
I Forsyth Central at Gilmer Co., {.IV I
I boys) 5:30 p.m., {varsity girls, I
I bays) 7 p.m. I
I I
■[’-South Forsyth at Pickens Co., (JV I
I girls, boys) 4 p.m., {varsity girls, I
I I
I Hall, (girls, boys) 4:30 p.m. J
I I
I North Forsyth at Commerce, (JV I
I boys) 5:30 p.m., (varsity girls, I
I boys) 7 p.m. I
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I announced). I
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I Wrestling I
Lady Eagle cheerleaders even the score with Central
By Stephen Underwood
Sports Editor
Thanks to Saturday’s results from Mt.
Zion HS, the stage for the Feb. 14 Region
7-AA cheerleading competition could
hardly be more dramatically set.
That’s because the region event will rep
resent the “rubber match” in the great,
growing cheerleading rivalry between
South Forsyth and Forsyth Central.
After placing behind their cross-county
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Quick change
South’s Ken Dixon (24) gains possession and heads the
other way as Central’s Scott VanderHoff (10) reacts.
Dixon, War Eagles
race past Bulldogs
By Stephen Underwood
Sports Editor
South Forsyth’s boys basket
ball team, the consensus
favorite in Region 7-AA this
season, has been maddeningly
inconsistent at times this year.
But when they’re on, they’re
tough to stop. And Saturday
night at home against arch-rival
Forsyth Central, they were on.
Attacking the Bulldogs with
surge after surge - largely
fueled by 26 points from Ken
Dixon - the War Eagles raced to
an overwhelming 87-54 tri
umph.
And the win gave South more
than just bragging rights for a
week; it also broke a tie for sec
ond in the 7-AA race. They
SFMS boys
claim 7th-grade
title over NF...
By K.E. Stenske
Sports Correspondent
The championship game of the Otwell seventh
grade boys basketball tournament last Saturday at
the new Forsyth Central gym came down to a clas
sic North versus South matchup.
With a last-second layup by tourney Most
Valuable Player Nate Green, however, the South
emerged victorious, 32-31.
No lead was safe as both the rival North Forsyth
Wildcats and the South Forsyth Gators battled back
and forth throughout the game - and the final
minute and a half had dramatic plays on both ends.
“It didn’t look good late in the fourth,” South
head coach Ricky Vickery said. “They did what
they had to do to win. They showed a lot of charac
ter.”
After a basket by North put them up 30-27, Gator
guard Tommy Southard was fouled with 36 sec
onds left in the game. With South in the double
bonus, Southard shot twice, hitting the first.
Kevin Kline was fouled after stealing the Wildcat
outlet pass moments later. He tied the score on his
See BOYS, Page 3B
Denton Ashway looks
| at a great hoops rivalry
PAGE2B
foes in a December meeting, the Lady War
Eagles evened the score last weekend.
Continuing to get better and better every
week, they posted a score of 255 points for
their outstanding 2-1/2-minute routine.
That total was well clear of Central’s 229
and the scores of the other eight Class AA
teams in the event. Rockdale, fourth in the
state last winter, was third with 212.
“It was the best performance we’ve had
this season,” said South head coach Stacey
McDaniel. “But there are still some things
moved to 5-2 (11-7 overall),
while Central dropped to 4-3 (7-
12).
That his team broke to a 24-13
lead after a quarter was impor
tant to War Eagle head coach
Richard Porter. “We had to,” he
said. “They’ve gotten the lead at
times and pulled the ball out
and sat on it ... Fortunately, we
were able to get up, pull away
and play our game.”
While Dixon was by far the
leading scorer, and also had
nine rebounds and four assists,
he got plenty of help. Keith
Boling and Jonathon Chase had
11 and 10 points inside, respec
tively, for the big Eagles, while
Carlos Jimenez and Derek Drew
See EAGLES, Page 2B
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Planning to win
South head coach Ricky Vickery consults with his players
during a timeout in their championship win over North’s boys.
we need to work on.”
But the Lady Eagles have obviously
worked out a lot of things since the begin
ning of the season. After their third at
Gordon Central Nov. 22 behind the Lady
Dogs and Johnson (No. 2 in AA last year),
South has now won three consecutive
competitions, all in January.
Going in, Central had won two straight
themselves, at Dawson Co. and
McEachern. “There’s not much to say,”
said head coach Patti Sanborn. “They just
Strong 'D' helps Lady Dogs
end long skid, beat South
By Alton Bridges
Sports Correspondent
The long-awaited second win of the season for the
Forsyth Central girls basketball team was more than
just that.
The Lady Bulldogs’ 42-37 triumph Saturday night
not only came on the home floor of county rival and
Region 7-AA foe South Forsyth, but it also broke a
long, long drought.
“It was a great win for us,” said Central coach
Belinda Price. “This is the first region win for us in
at least four years (since the ‘93-’94 campaign) and
it took everyone. Even those who did not play were
involved in the game. They were cheering and
encouraging those who were on the court. It was a
team effort and I am proud of this team. They didn’t
give up.”
“We just did not play well,” said a disappointed
Debbie Blake, the first-year Lady Eagle coach. “We
play them again Saturday night and we are going to
have to be ready.”
For a well-balanced Central team, Amanda
Coffield had ten points, Erin Shultz had nine and
Brooke Bagby and Sara Levis each had six.
The scoring leaders for South were Lisa Sibenaller
with 11, Jennifer Thompson with seven, and Annie
Gilmore, Heidi Mullinax, and Kristy Geisler with
four each.
With the score tied at ten and 6:11 left in the first
half, Levis hit the go-ahead field goal for the Lady
Dogs. Geisler followed with a free throw for South
to make the score 12-11, Central scored the next
eight points.
With the hosts not scoring again until the last 6.6
seconds of the quarter, the Lady Dogs took a half
time lead of 20-12. Central outscored South 14-3 in
the period and never relinquished their lead. A
strong defensive game by the visitors was a big part
of the win, with South leader Katie Vaughan not
scoring.until a 3-pointer late in the fourth.
“We controlled the boards and we did not give
South a lot of good shots,” said Price. “When our
starters got into foul trouble, our bench played like
champions. Katie (Culver) played great and (Misty)
Bethany did an outstanding job for us off the bench.”
In the opening quarter, South took a four-point lead
when Sibenaller and Geisler opened the game with
field goals. Central took a 6-4 lead after Coffield
scored a triple and Shultz a field goal.
However, South tied the score at six when
Sibenaller hit a field goal and Thompson a long 3-
pointer at the buzzer to put them ahead 9-6 as the
quarter ended.
Then at the the beginning of the third quarter, the
I This Week in fishing
with Ken Sturdivant
beat us. We did our best, but South was a
lot cleaner than we were.”
“The competition we went to at Dawson
was our best one,” she added. “We were
tight (at Mt. Zion)... We’ve just got to go
back and clean it up.”
The coach did, though, express surprise
that judges deemed the margin so wide
between the top two.
For South, McDaniel was pleased with
See CHEER, Page 2B
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Stepping it up
Brooke Bagby of Central puts up a shot as
Lisa Sibenaller and Jennifer Thompson (44)
of South attempt to stop her.
hosts scored the first five points to pull within three.
However, Bagby and Shultz hit field goals to change
the momentum of the game.
In the quarter, South outscored Central 12-8, but
still trailed 28-23 with eight minutes left.
In the last quarter, both teams scored 14 points -
and had foul problems. Shultz, Bagby and Bethany
fouled out for Central and Sibenaller and Jacquelyn
Evans fouled out for South.
Coffield had six points and Levis had four in the
quarter for Central, though. Thompson had four
points and Vaughan had her 3-pointer at the end of
the game to complete the scoring for South.
The same two teams will meet again Saturday at
Central. Meanwhile, South traveled to White Co.
See DOCS, Page 2B
... and a narrow
miss for Lady
Gators: OT loss
By Stephen Underwood
Sports Editor
The South Forsyth MS girls basketball team fin
ished out a great season Saturday, but couldn’t
quite take home the title.
Taking the top-seeded Dawson County Lady
Tigers into overtime, the Lady Gators came up just
a bit short in the championship game of the Otwell
seventh-grade tournament Saturday, 37-31.
“We played a real good game,” said South head
coach Connie Gaddis, whose team finished 8-2.
“We played hard against Dawson all season. They
were just a couple points better.”
The game was a seesaw affair that saw eight lead
changes and seven ties.
Sara Murphy and Melissa Anderson each poured
in 13 points for South to lead the way.
“I knew it was going to be a close game,” Dawson
head coach Tina Brown said. “I felt we had to have
one of our best games to win.”
Murphy tried to win the game for the Gators sin
gle-handedly in the fourth when she scored six of
South’s eight points. Sarah Potter’s go-ahead field
See GIRLS, Page 3B
B
INSIDE