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2B
FROM 1B
Lambert: Jones hits at buzzer
Lambert (13-8, 4-7
Region 7-AAAA)
appeared even more
poised to accomplish
such a feat with less
than 10 seconds left.
Forward Logan Bush
launched a perfect full
court inbound pass to
Edgeworth with Lambert
leading 56-54.
The senior’s first
attempt skittered off the
rim. He snared his own
rebound and fired a short
turn-around jumper hard
off the backboard.
The ball bounced
straight to Jones, who did
the rest all on his own.
"Poor Danny,” Lambert
coach Derrick DeWitt
said solemnly. "He didn't
let his team dow n tonight.
... He played a great
game.
“Make or miss, when
the other team hits a shot
like [Jones’], what can
you do?"
Horns coaches and
fans clamored that
Jones’ foot was on the
line as he launched the
game winner. With about
30 people huddled
around the camera, a
replaying of Lambert’s
official game film
revealed he took flight
from at least a foot
behind the arc. The
clock wasn't visible on
the video, but the ball
appeared in real time to
have left Jones’ hands
w ith a second left.
It spoiled a stellar
night for Edgeworth and
Lambert forward Jake
Alexander. Edgeworth
and Creekview two
guard Beau Blackwell
tied for a game-high 18
points, and Alexander
made 10 of 12 free
throws, including 8 of 8
in the fourth quarter.
Alexander served a
three-game suspension
earlier in the season for a
violation of team rules
and drew a technical foul
during the Horn’s loss to
South Forsyth Jan. 20.
He had no such trouble
Tuesday, drawing high
praise from his coach.
“He's a tough kid,"
DeWitt said. "He brings
us a lot of energy. As
long as we keep him out
of foul trouble, we love
having him on the floor.
... He brings a spark to
us that we’d be a differ¬
ent team without.”
It wasn’t enough.
The last of Alexander’s
fourth-quarter free
FROM 1B
Central: Kane notches double-double in
layup and drilling another 3 on
back-to-back possessions. The
scores were sandwiched around a
Reed Ehrardt trey that brought
Johns Creek within 42-36 with
2:30 left, but the Gladiators (3-17,
1-10) didn't score again until 29
seconds remained.
“We kept listening to our coach,"
Custer said. “We just had to stay
focused, and when we would lose a
little bit of focus, we just have to
get settled down, calm down and
get back in it.”
Center Andrew Fishier added 17
points, nine rebounds and six
blocks for Central, which eclipsed
its highest win total since before
the 2004-05 season (online records
don’t go back any further).
Matchups with Sequoyah
Saturday (results unavailable as of
press time), South Forsyth Tuesday
and Lambert Friday offer three
chances for the Dawgs to improve
their region tournament seed.
“This time of year, it just gets
much tougher because you’ve
played [your opponents] once,"
Steve Barnes said. “There’s not a
whole lot of guesswork. You kind
of know what they do, who they’re
playing, who you need to stop, how
you need to stop them, what other
teams have done to stop them. So
all that goes into it, and then you
have to come up with a plan and
kind of do what you do.”
Theisen was the Gladiators’ only
double-figures scorer with 13 points.
Central led 23-15 at halftime and
took its largest lead early in the
third on a thunderous two-handed
Fishier dunk. Johns Creek respond¬
ed with a 16-4 run to end the peri¬
od, scoring on six of its next eight
FORSYTH COUNTY NEWS | forsythnews.com
throws gave Lambert a
55- 52 lead with 26.7 sec¬
onds left, Fdgeworth
added another free throw
10 seconds later, but
Jones drove the left side
of the lane and made it
56- 54 with 9.5 ticks
remaining.
Both teams called
timeouts before the
Longhorns executed
what they refer to as a
Hail Mary pass. They’d
run it successfully in a
5 0-47 w i n over
Woodland.
That victory had
Lambert believing it
could beat anybody,
DeWitt said. That notion
suffered a serious blow
Thursday.
“I told my boys to
remember feeling like
this, embrace this feel¬
ing,” DeWitt said,
“because you’re not
going to feel this often.
So embrace this feeling,
and remember it, but
don’t let it bother you.
Remember it, but let it be
motivation to close, to
finish, to play perfect
down the stretch [rather]
than to play loose and
timid."
Indeed, the Longhorns
squandered a lead that
stood at 10 early in the
fourth.
Back-to-back 3s by
Bush and Edgeworth
gave Lambert a 21-18
advantage midway
through the second,
sparking a 15-5 run to
end the quarter.
“We’d never beaten
them, and we really
wanted to get it tonight,”
Perzella said. “We’d
been working hard all
week, and we executed,
and at the end, some¬
thing happened and we
couldn’t do anything
about it.”
Another trey by
Brennan Gagen and an
Edgeworth layup had
Lambert up by 11 on two
separate occasions, but
back-to-back layups by
Jones and Blackwell
made it 43-35 heading
into the fourth.
“They capitalized on
our errors,” DeWitt said.
"They’ve got a team full
of shooters, so you can’t
give them too much com¬
fort. They found some
comfort and some holes
in our defense, and they
were able to nail them.”
Two of Blackwell’s
five threes on six
attempts came during the
possessions.
Theisen slashed down the left
side of the lane and drew a block¬
ing foul before finishing with a
layup. He missed the first free
throw, but Jeremiah Jones was
called for a lane violation, and
Theisen capitalized to bring the
Gladiators within three heading
into the final frame.
Custer scored six points in the
first quarter as Central led 11-8
going into the second. Fishier
stepped back and drilled a 3-point
er from the right extended elbow
with 4:25 left in the first half.
“That is my first in my career,”
Fishier said, “and it will probably
be my one and only, so I can be
100 percent.”
Six-foot-8-inch center John
Grayson and 6-foot-5-inch forward
Logan Williamson presented
Fishier more of a height matchup
than he usually sees and were able
to muscle him out of the lane at
times, but the 6-11 senior made the
necessary adjustments.
“I just played around them,”
Fishier said. “1 tried to be a little
quicker than them.”
The Dawgs host South at 7:30
p.m. Tuesday.
Forsyth Central girls 64, Johns
Creek 41
For close to three months now,
Central girls basketball coach Andy
Martin has rummaged through the
cupboard.
Keeley Chester and Kayla
Richards' versatility is almost
always front and center, but their
coach has had to keep digging for
the final essential ingredient: a post
presence.
final two minutes. The
second of those brought
Creekview within 53-52
with 1:01 to go.
Save for Jones’ streak¬
ing layup near the end of
the third, Lambert’s
matchup defense had
held him in check. He
finished with nine
points.
But on a night benefit
ting Logan's Heroes, a
local organization dedi¬
cated to fighting child¬
hood cancer, Jones’ hero¬
ics were the difference.
His Sports Center Top
10-worthy shot gave the
Grizzlies their only lead
since halfway through
the second quarter.
“1 heard a college
coach say to come from
behind you need some
skill, some strategy and a
lot of luck," DeWitt said.
“Putting together that run,
[Creekview coach] Casey
[Gramling] instills that
choosing to win that we
had and we still have.
Credit Creekview coming
in here, closing it out.”
DeWitt’s postgame
meeting with the team
was short. By the time
the coach’s postgame
interview ended, most of
Lambert’s players had
bolted for home.
Bush and Perzella
remained, with Bush try¬
ing to console his dis¬
traught teammate on the
way out of the gym.
“Worst pain I’ve ever
felt in my life,” Perzella
said. “That’s basically it.”
Lambert was slated to
play Rome Saturday
afternoon. Results were
unavailable as of press
time.
Creekview (girls) 49,
Lambert 47
Seth Thompson and
the Lambert girls basket¬
ball team undoubtedly
spent the later part of
Thursday night ponder¬
ing In what could’ve been.
their narrow defeat,
the Lady Longhorns out¬
played Creekview for
much of the second half.
But an opportunity to
upset the fifth-ranked
team in Class AAAA
slipped through their fin¬
gers, and they knew it
afterwards.
“1 just told [my team¬
mates] that we need to
start focusing before the
games,” said center
Peyton Card, who
addressed the team in the
locker room. “No one
He finally found it Friday night
in the Lady Bulldogs' win against
Johns Creek at the D.B. Carroll
Complex. The label read “Emma
Kane and Caitlin Dabbs."
He only hopes he can keep add¬
ing it to the mix.
The two power forwards provid¬
ed a big lift behind Chester’s game
high 19 points. Kane put up the
bigger numbers a 10-point,
13-rebound double-double but
both she and Dabbs had their coach
thinking big with three regular-sea
son games remaining.
“That's good to see because that
doesn’t happen very often,” Martin
said. “It’s not because we don’t
have good players there, we just
haven’t had that production on a
consistent basis. When we do,
we’re very tough to beat. When you
have two reliable posts, it creates
all kinds of matchup problems for
the other team.”
Kane scored all but two of her
points in the third quarter, connect¬
ing twice from the field and four
times from the free-throw line.
Central (15-7, 7-5 Region
7-AAAA) outscored the Lady
Gladiators 40-19 in the second half
after leading by two at the break.
Chester took over in the fourth,
sparking a 14-4 run. A jumper from
the top of the key, a 3 from the
right wing and a three-point play
on a floater in the paint made it
51-37 with 5:47 left, and her drive
and-dish to Morganne Shobbe pro¬
duced another successful and-one
opportunity moments later.
That made it 57-37, putting
things out of reach for Johns Creek
(9-11,4-7).
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Lambert's girls gave coach Seth Thompson, left, and their fans plenty of
moments of excitement in the second half, but it wasn't enough to upset
the No. 5-ranked Grizzlies.
really took it into consid¬
eration. It all just comes
down to focus before the
game."
Lady Grizzlies small
forward Lauren Pounds
iced it with 15 seconds
left, converting both ends
of a one-and-one.
Lambert’s Alex Abbey
drew a foul with 7.3 sec¬
onds to go but missed
both free throws. Card’s
put-back of the second
miss fell through, and
Alyssa Nichelson missed
from the foul stripe at the
other end, but Christina
Johnson’s 3 4-court heave
was way off the mark.
Creekview (21-2, 13-0
Region 7-AAAA)
remained atop the region
standings and won its
12th straight. Third
place Lambert fell to
14-7 and 8-3. The Horns
have yet to defeat a
ranked team in their
three-year history.
Lady Grizzlies point
guard Madison Rice
scored a game-high 12
points, and Dee
Blankenship added 11.
Christina Johnson led
Lambert with 11 points,
tied for her season low,
but nine points apiece
from Card and Kierstin
Kidwell helped pick up
the slack.
It was the Horns’ clos¬
est region loss of the sea¬
son. Although plenty of
positives will reveal
themselves during film
review, playing so close
to a top-10 team and
coming away empty left
SUNDAY, JANUARY 29,2012
their coach frustrated.
“This is one of the bad
parts we’ve got in our
program right now,"
Thompson said. “We play
to our competition level
sometimes. We’ll edge
out some of the teams
that arc in the middle of
the pack, but when we
play against these good
teams, we have got to
take it to another level if
we want to be one of the
top notch programs in
metro Atlanta. And we
want to be."
The game’s final plays
weren't the only ones to
provide Creekview’s
deciding edge.
Chief among the oth¬
ers:
• After trying unsuc¬
cessfully to foul by swip¬
ing at the ball. Abbey
brought her hands togeth¬
er and pushed Kristian
Graham, drawing an
intentional foul call with
34.4 seconds left. Graham
made both free throws,
and Creekview retained
possession.
• Left unguarded.
Pounds nailed a 3-pointer
at the first-quarter buzzer
from the right extended
elbow.
• Lambert didn't match
Creekview blow-for
blow. The Lady
Longhorns turned the ball
over 18 times in the first
half and appeared des¬
tined for another sloppy
loss to the Grizzlies,
which handled them easi¬
ly on Jan. 6.
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Horns played during the
final 10:48 — outscoring
the Grizzlies 28-13 and
hounding them defensive¬
ly — stung the most.
“We have to start fast if
we’re going to win ball
games." Thompson said.
"That simple.”
Creekview led 23-15 at
the break and opened the
second half on a 13-4 run.
Back-to-back
Blankenship layups made
it 36-19 with 2:48 left in
the third, but 3s by
Kierstin Kidwell and
Abbey sparked a 23-6
Lambert jaunt.
Kierstin Kidwell
capped the stretch with
another 3 with 3:02 left,
cutting the advantage to
44-42.
The Longhorns’ man
to-man defense fueled
their second-half come¬
back try. Creekview
scored 10 points less than
its season average.
“We took away their
ability to shoot and drive
the lane," Card said. “We
definitely gave them a
good, pressure defense,
and they couldn't handle
the ball up top. They
could not find a way to go
inside.”
The Longhorns can’t
settle for drawing posi¬
tives from a loss, though,
Thompson said.
"I'm happy that we
competed,” the coach
said, “but being happy to
compete is not good
enough for us now. We've
got to learn to finish these
games.”