Newspaper Page Text
South ’Cats in
By Travis M. Chaffin
Sports Editor
DULUTH — The South Forsyth boys and
girls basketball teams opened their 7
AAAAA schedule Tuesday night, coming
away with a pair of wins to open the 2005-06
region slate.
The South Forsyth Lady Eagles’ 38-25
win over the Lady Wildcats did not come
without some adjustments.
A lack of defensive intensity during the
first half spilled over to the team’s offensive
output, and the South girls watched a narrow
11-10 first-quarter lead turn into a 17-14
deficit by halftime.
But head coach Keith Gravitt’s Lady
Eagles managed a 6-5 third quarter before
turning up the heat in the final stanza — an
18-3 fourth period that helped seal the win.
“We told the girls at the end of the third
WRESTLING ROUNDUP
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Photos/Ron Logan
Forsyth Central 140-pound wrestler Alex Olsen, on top, earned a pair of wins Tuesday night in Gainesville as his Bulldogs swept the Red
Elephants and Stone Mountain High School. On Saturday, Central hosts the 400 North Team Dual Tournament. Below, Bulldog 189
pounder Tanner Conner, right, trailed his Red Elephant opponent by as many as 10 points before ultimately falling in a two-point decision.
Dawgs win two in
By Travis M. Chaffin
Sports Editor
With their 400 North Team Dual
Tournament set for Saturday, the
Forsyth Central wrestling program
had a good tune-up Tuesday night in
Gainesville, defeating the home Red
Elephants 43-31 and Stone Mountain
53-24.
“[Gainesville is] a solid team, but
over and over, we keep matching up
with solid teams and winning,” said
Forsyth Central coach Nick Crowder.
Now at 9-2 in dual tournaments
this season, the Central squad has
begun to draw stares when entering
an opposing team’s gym as its repu¬
tation continues to grow.
“It’s nice, but new. It’s a little
unusual,” Crowder said. “The boys
are responding real well and, actual¬
ly, we had a couple still out of the
lineup.”
Michael Pharis missed Tuesday’s
matches due to sickness and Kory
Dressel is out with a shoulder injury.
For the night, Taylor White had
two pinfall victories (one at 103
pounds against Gainesville and the
second at 112 pounds against Stone
Mountain). Central’s 125-pounder,
Michael Vazquez, had a pair of wins,
one by pinfall.
Breaking into the starting lineup
for the first time this season, 140
pound Alex Olsen also came away
With a pair of wins, including a pin¬
fall victory against an opponent from
Stone Mountain.
At 171 pounds, Chase Lovin
t
Forsyth County News—Friday, December 2,2005
quarter that we didn’t want to take any shots
that were outside the paint. We didn’t want to
settle for jump shots. Our girls started attack¬
ing the basket a little bit more,” Gravitt said.
“They started running their half-court
offense and ... committing themselves to get¬
ting better shots. The primary thing was that
the defensive intensity picked up.”
South’s Lara Gaspar scored six of her
game-high 14 points in the fourth period.
Katie Zittrauer also did her part for South
on Tuesday, scoring eight points, followed by
Stephanie Storms with five.
The Lady Cats were led offensively by
Laura Moore with eight points, and Mykala
Walker with seven.
“[Walker] did a real good job getting the
ball into the paint. We gave up too many easy
shots as a result of their penetration,” Gravitt
said.
— ■
...
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.
earned two pinfall victories for the
Bulldogs.
Tyler Parker (152 pounds) earned
a pinfall win against Gainesville and
received a forfeit victory against
Stone Mountain,
Bulldog wrestlers with one win
Tuesday included Ryan Vanderwant
I Lady War
I I Eagle
I Katie
“We would liked to have looked a little bit I Zittrauer,
better after the tournament, but we’re happy I seen ear
with the win. The girls are happy with the win Her this
and any time you get a ‘W’ you feel good ■ season,
about it.” i I scored
Shooting and ball defense are two areas W/ ei 9 ht
the Lady Eagle coach said his team would son, I I points in
work on in preparation of tonight’s home if South
game against North Gwinnett. 1 138-25 Forsyth’s
“We’ve already played one tough team. win
McEachern is a very tough ballteam and I at Duluth
hopefully we learned something from that, ■ Tuesday
and we’ll be ready for them,” South’s coach ml 1 night.
said. “But [the Central Gwinnett girls] are
well-coached. Cass Cassell — he’s practically
a legend over there at Central Gwinnett.
“He’ll have his girls prepared and they’ll
be running some pressure defense on our
Photo/Ron
See SWEEPS, Page 2B Logan
(pinfall victory vs. Stone Mountain
at 103 pounds), Josh Buck (135),
Ahron Kudela (at 130 vs. Stone
Mountain), Chuck Vazquez (pinfall
victory vs. Gainesville at 160).
At their annual dual tournament
tomorrow, Central will face Marist,
South Forsyth and Stockbridge on
Raiders
split with
Chamblee
By Ben Beitzel
Sports Writer
CHAMBLEE — No matter
how much North Forsyth tried,
they could not garner enough
momentum to secure a lead
against Chamblee, Tuesday.
Despite tying the game seven
times, the Raiders only managed
to take the lead on three occa¬
sions, building no larger lead
than two points.
“We just never could get over
the hump,” said boys head coach
Phil Moore. “We would tie it
then we would turn it over and
give them an easy basket, then
turn it over again and it has gone
from tied to a four-point game.”
The Raiders began the sec
ond quarter with a 10-2 run that
earned them their second lead of
the game. Michael Rubio and
Michael Weathers each scored
five during that stretch. Rubio
ended the game with 14 points.
“Michael [Rubio] is a com¬
petitor and we expect a lot of
out him,” Moore said. “We kind
of feed off of his emotions and
play.”
Following the second-quarter
run, Chamblee battled back to
tie the game at 24 at halftime
and would never allow North to
take another lead.
Adding to Rubio’s 14, Jon
McBrayer and Cory Kracken
berger both scored 10 points.
“I think that is a team we can
beat the next time around,”
Moore said. “We’ll just have to
play a little better.”
Lady Raiders 46 r »
Chamblee 22
Led by three players scoring
in double figures, the Lady
Raiders of North Forsyth, after
slowly building a lead in the
first three quarters, used a 20
point fourth to rout the
Chamblee Lady Bulldogs in
both teams’ region opener.
“We were a little rocky in the
first half,” said head coach Beth
Gliatta. “We were OK defen¬
sively, but we weren’t sharp or
focused. We talked to them at
halftime and, when we came
out, we had great rotations on
defense, we were more balanced
on our shots and our decision
making was better. That was the
turning point.”
Also at halftime, Gliatta
helped change Kelley Reeves’
shot selection, leading to Reeves
scoring eight of her 10 points in
the second half.
“I told Kelley [Reeves] that
if she comes off the comer lean¬
ing toward the ball and jumps
and shoots, she is still leaning,”
Gliatta said. “I told her that only
after she had her feet balanced,
if she was open, then she could
shoot it. She had to get balanced
from the bottom up. She started
making a lot more shots then.”
See SPLIT, Page 2B
I
their side of the bracket. The other
pool features Northgate, North
Gwinnett, Dunwoody and Lovett —
a team Crowder describes as “tough
as death.”
‘We’re excited,” Crowder said.
See WIN, Page 2B
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