2B Saturday, December 29, 2018
The Times, Gainesville, Georgia | gainesvilletimes.com
SPORTS
HIGH SCHOOL BASKCTBALL
COLLEGE FOOTBALL I Cotton Bowl
Lanierland scoreboard
Johnson boys take down
Flowery Branch, 71-67
Jesse Harbin scored 22
points for the Johnson boys
and Garry Daies finished
with 16 in a 71-67 win against
Flowery Branch in the Lani
erland tournament consola
tion bracket Friday at West
Hall.
LAKEVIEW ACADEMY
GIRLS 63, EAST HALL 52:
Eliza Snyder put up 21 points
with seven rebounds and six
assists for the Lady Lions in
consolation play in the Lani
erland at West Hall. Also for
Lakeview Academy, Sadie
Thrailkill had 19 points with
12 rebounds and four steals.
Jackie Allen and Jo Sny
der each chipped in 10
points for the Lady Lions.
For the Lady Knights,
Jazmyn Gooch led with 17
points.
LANIER CHRISTIAN
GIRLS 46, JOHNSON 32:
Faith Wasden finished
with 19 points for the Lady
Lightning in the ninth-place
game at the Lanierland on
Friday at West Hall.
CHEROKEE BLUFF
BOYS 62, WEST HALL
35: Palmer Weaver led the
Bears with 11 points, fol
lowed by Jaylen Justice with
10 points.
Cherokee Bluff faces
Johnson at 1:30 p.m. today in
Oakwood in the consolation
bracket.
Compiled by Bill Murphy
BOYS
AUSTIN STEELE I The Times
Lakeview Academy’s Adam Cottrell blocks Gainesville’s
Brent Kelly’s shot on Friday, Dec. 28, 2018 at West Hall High
School during the Lanierland semifinals.
■ Continued from 1B
The teams stayed close
throughout the contest, and
the opening quarter was
largely a defensive battle.
Gainesville held the Lions
to just three points through
the first half of the eight-
minute period, while scoring
just six themselves. Adam
Cottrell started Lakeview
Academy’s scoring with a
three-point play and hit a
3-pointer late in the opening
frame that tied the game at
10-10.
The back-and-forth nature
of the contest continued
through the rest of the first
half. The teams exchanged
baskets on six straight pos
sessions near the opening of
the second quarter before
McIntyre spun in an acro
batic layup while absorbing
contact and falling to the
ground. He completed the
3-point play to briefly give
Lakeview Academy a lead,
but a pair of Kelly steals and
dishes — one to Walt Dixon
and one to Datavian Buffing
ton — put Gainesville back
on top heading into halftime.
In the third quarter, the
Lions got six points a piece
from Cottrell and McIntyre
and battled back to take a
one-point advantage going
into the final frame.
But Rubel took over from
there.
He scored 12 of his 23
points over the last eight
minutes of the game, power
ing the Red Elephants to the
win.
Gainesville advances to
take on an East Hall team
that it beat in last year’s
finals, although both squads
have undergone major
changes — including at the
head coach position.
GIRLS
■ Continued from 1B
in double figures and five
more chipping in for scores.
Ashlee Locke was fed early
and often underneath,
racking up a game-high 19
points — 16 in the first half
— to pad her stat line of four
blocks, five boards and one
assist. Senior guard Ashley
Woodroffe added 13 points,
followed by Ashley Scott
with 10 points for the Lady
Falcons.
Also for Flowery Branch,
senior guard Caroline
Wysocki had four points
with six assists and a pair of
steals.
“We kind of like to spread
the floor, get the ball mov
ing, just find the open
player,” Newton-Gonzalez
said. “And I was proud of
how we did that. I thought
Caroline found a lot of open
kids early, and that really
opened up a lot of things
for the kids. It makes it a lot
easier when kids are hitting
open shots, and tonight it
helped us.”
Meanwhile, Christina
Garcia was the only Ches-
tatee starter to reach double
figures with 13 points. Mag
gie McNair chipped in seven
points for the Lady War
Eagles (8-8)
The outcome was never
in doubt for Flowery
Branch. Ashley Scott drilled
a 3-pointer from the left
corner for the game’s first
basket seconds from the
opening tip, and the Lady
Falcons exploded out the
gates for a 13-2 lead early.
The tournament’s top
seed knocked down four
more treys — one more
from Scott and two from
freshman Shaina Kriews
(six points) — while assisting
three Ashlee Locke baskets
from underneath to build a
24-7 lead by the end of the
first period.
The Lady Falcons led
41-17 at the break and went
on to lead by as much as 36
in the final period, when
freshman Emilee Scott (six
points) made a 3 to make it
65-29.
NORTH
■ Continued from 1B
Red Elephants (7-5). The
pair combined for 36 points
in the second half, and 19 of
their 26 four-quarter points
to erase a 12-point deficit.
There were six lead
changes inside the final four
minutes of regulation before
Shelton’s clutch trey in front
of two defenders just behind
the right wing in the closing
seconds.
Four players scored in
double figures for North
Hall. One day after banking
the game-winning layup at
the buzzer against Lakeview
Academy, Ferguson was
ruthless inside the paint for
the Lady Trojans, finish
ing with 21 points and 15
rebounds for her second
double-double performance
of the tourney.
Grace Hollifield chipped
in 21 points, followed by
point guard Maci Gillespie
with 11 points and a team-
high 10 assists.
Clark was another to
produce for the Lady Tro
jans with 10 points and two
3-pointers. Ansley Small
wood tallied nine points,
including her only 3-pointer
that elicited pandemonium
from the crowd as her long-
range loft initially gave
North Hall a 64-63 lead with
50 seconds left in regulation.
“Down the stretch, when
(Gainesville) started making
plays, some of our kids grew
up a lot tonight, started mak
ing plays that we see them
sometimes do in practice,”
House said. “A lot of people
grew up today for us. It was
awesome.”
EAST
■ Continued from 1B
with three quarters left to
play.
Cook kept up his strong
play in the second quarter,
scoring six points and mov
ing to a perfect 6 for 6 from
the free throw line. Mean
while, foul trouble forced
Rucker to sit most of the
period as the teams battled
back and forth. Neither side
managed more than two
unanswered buckets, and
East Hall could not extend
its lead past five points
before the halftime break.
Rucker got back off the
bench to start the third quar
ter to help salt the game
away early for East Hall.
Halfway through the frame,
he grabbed a steal and
passed out to Clete Cooper
in the corner, who buried a
trey. Then, Rucker went on
a 7-0 run of his own that put
his team up 26 with less than
a minute to go until the final
period.
Rucker finished things off
early in the fourth, taking a
pass from Curry under the
rim and rising up for a dunk
that extended the Viking
lead to 29.
“When I was on the bench,
I was like I need to go out
there and help my team,”
Rucker said. “When I got to
go out there, they told me to
do my best as I can and stay
out of foul trouble. I was just
glad to be able to help my
team and pull out the win.”
In just his first year as
head coach of the program,
Thompson will have a shot
to earn East Hall a Lanier
land title.
“This is important for the
school and important for
our community,” he said.
“Hopefully, we’ve got a shot
tomorrow. It’s going to be a
great game.”
TODAY ON TV
BASKETBALL
FOOTBALL
■ Davidson at North Carolina, noon, ESPN2
■ BYU at Mississippi State, noon, ESPNU
■ Howard at Georgetown, noon, FS1
■ Kentucky at Louisville, 2 p.m., ESPN2
■ St. Bonaventure at Syracuse, 2 p.m., ESPNU
■ Xavier at DePaul, 2 p.m., FS1
■ Georgia Southern at Dayton, 3:30 p.m.,
NBCSN
■ Butler at Florida, 4 p.m., ESPNU
■ Belmont at Purdue, 4:30 p.m., FSN
■ Radford at Maryland, 6 p.m., ESPNU
■ NBA: Cavaliers at Hawks, 7:30 p.m., FSSE
■ Bryant at Iowa, 8 p.m., ESPNU
■ Belk Bowl: South
Carolina vs. Virginia,
noon, ABC
■ Peach Bowl: Florida
vs. Michigan, noon,
ESPN
■ Cotton Bowl Semifinal:
Notre Dame vs. Clemson,
4 p.m., ESPN
■ Orange Bowl semifinal:
Oklahoma vs. Alabama,
8 p.m., ESPN
Playing with the big boys
MARK J. TERRILL I The Associated Press
Notre Dame quarterback Ian Book, left, avoids Southern California linebacker Jordan losefa
during the first half of the game Nov. 24 in Los Angeles.
No. 3 Notre Dame eager to
face No. 2 Clemson in semis
Associated Press
The question was about
sustaining high-level success
in college football and Dabo
Swinney’s answer lasted 3
minutes, 40 seconds. Brevity
is not the Clemson coach’s
strong suit.
Swinney talked about how
people make the program,
continuity leads to consis
tency, and how it can’t just
be about the results on the
scoreboard.
“It’s a holistic approach.
It’s social. It’s spiritual. It’s
life skills. It’s career devel
opment. It’s every area,”
Swinney said Friday during
the final Cotton Bowl news
conference. “And I think
our commitment to that has
been a big reason that we’ve
been able to sustain our suc
cess because I think certain
types of young people have
bought into that.”
As Swinney talked, Notre
Dame coach Brian Kelly lis
tened — a joint news confer
ence with Swinney involves
a lot of listening — occa
sionally nodding his head
in agreement. Swinney has
built the Tigers into what
Notre Dame used to be and
what Kelly is trying to recre
ate in South Bend, Indiana.
The second-ranked Tigers
(13-0) face the third-ranked
Fighting Irish (12-0) today in
Notre Dame’s first College
Football Playoff appear
ance. It is Clemson’s fourth
straight. The winner will
play for the national cham
pionship on Jan. 7 in Santa
Clara, California. Clemson
has played for the title twice
in the past three seasons.
Kelly marveled at Clem
son’s consistency under
Swinney.
“It’s easy to get dis
tracted,” Kelly said. “And
to keep that within your
culture in your program
requires just to have an eye
on it every single day. So his
ability to continue to keep
his program year in and
year out at the top of col
lege football requires more
than just recruiting good
players.”
Kelly has been at Notre
Dame for nine years and
had the most successful run
for a Fighting Irish coach
since Lou Holtz, who won
the school’s last national title
in 1988. The only coaches
who have won more games
at Notre Dame than Kelly
(81-34) are Hall of Famers
Knute Rockne (105), Holtz
(100), Ara Parseghian (95)
and Frank Leahy (87).
Kelly has only once been
this close to a national cham
pionship and after Alabama
beat the Irish 42-14 in the
2012 BCS championship
game, Notre Dame really
didn’t seem all that close in
retrospect. Just two seasons
ago, the Irish went 4-8 and
On TV
When: 4 p.m. today
TV: ESPN, ESPN2
Kelly overhauled his staff
and his approach to lead
ing a team. The result was a
huge turnaround to 10-3 last
year.
The foundation appears
to be in place for the Irish
to regularly contend for the
playoff.
Still, Kelly and his team
have downplayed any talk
of the Cotton Bowl being a
barometer for the program.
Sure, the Irish are here
again on the big stage, but do
they really belong?
“When you go through and
win week after week, you’re
past measuring sticks,”
Kelly said earlier this week.
If Alabama is the current
standard in college football,
Clemson has been the only
program that comes close.
In 11 seasons under Swin
ney, the Tigers are 114-30.
And while that takes more
than just good players, the
Tigers also have plenty of
those.
Running back Travis Eti
enne is a second-team All-
American who has scored
22 touchdowns. Freshman
quarterback Trevor Law
rence looks like a future first
overall NFL draft pick. The
best defensive line in the
country features All-Amer
icans in tackle Christian
Wilkins and end Clelin Fer
rell. No opponent has come
within 20 points of Clemson
since a close call against
Syracuse in September.
ORANGE BOWL
Alabama, Oklahoma set
for battle in the semifinals
Associated Press
Nick Saban knows Ala
bama cannot win every
game.
The Crimson Tide merely
come close.
This is the fifth year of
the College Football Play
off, and the fifth Alabama
appearance in the
four-team tourna
ment to decide the
national champion.
The latest quest
toward another
title, which would
be the school’s
third in the last
four years, resumes
today when the top-
ranked Crimson
Tide (13-0) take on fourth-
ranked Oklahoma (12-1) in
the semifinals at the Orange
Bowl.
“It’s a good problem to
have,” said Oklahoma quar
terback Kyler Murray, the
Heisman Trophy winner.
“They win a lot. We win a
lot. .. I’ve heard a lot of
people say ‘beat Alabama’
just because they don’t like
Alabama or whatever. But
I’m not really too much into
that.”
The game is a matchup
between the two highest-
scoring offenses in the coun
try, with Oklahoma slightly
outpacing Alabama
there. It’s also a
matchup of argu
ably the two best
players in the coun
try; Murray and Ala
bama quarterback
Tua Tagovailoa
were first and sec
ond, respectively, in
the Heisman voting.
At stake is a berth
in the CFP title game on Jan.
7 against either Clemson or
Notre Dame. And Alabama
has four players who will
be appearing in their sev
enth CFP game — which
is absurd, especially when
considering that there have
been only 12 games total in
On TV
When: 8 p.m. today
TV: ESPN, ESPN2
the event since it was put
into place starting with the
2014 season.
“We know we can’t be
perfect,” Saban said. “But
we’re certainly trying to
work every day to close the
gap on how good can we be,
and are we reaching our full
potential in how we improve
and work every day. ”
The edge for the Crimson
Tide, on paper anyway, is
on defense. Alabama comes
into this game ranked fourth
nationally in points allowed
per game, while Oklahoma
is ranked 96th.
“We’ve prepared well,”
said Oklahoma coach Lin
coln Riley, the 35-year-old
offensive mastermind who
will be coaching in his 15th
bowl game already. “Con
fident in the way our team
has approached this entire
month.”
Murray
MUSIC CIP^ BOWL
Auburn smashes
Purdue, 63-14
Jarrett Stidham threw for
373 yards and five touch
downs in his final college
game , and Auburn routed
Purdue 63-14 in the Music
City Bowl on Friday.
Auburn (8-5) rolled in
the finale of a season that
opened with a top-10 rank
ing, stumbled a bit in the
middle and concluded with
a record-setting perfor
mance. It was the Tigers’
first postseason victory since
beating Memphis in the 2015
Birmingham Bowl.
Auburn scored the most
points by a Southeastern
Conference team in a bowl,
topping Alabama’s 61-6 win
over Syracuse in the Orange
Bowl on Jan. 1,1953.
The Tigers had a chance
to match the most points
ever scored in a bowl at 70,
most recently by Army in
the Armed Forces Bowl last
week, but they took a knee
at the Purdue 1 with 61 sec
onds left.
Stidham, a junior who
already has declared his
intention to leave early for
the NFL draft, got the Tigers
off to a fast start, and they
just poured it on from there.
Auburn scored TDs on its
first eight possessions.
It tied the Music City Bowl
records for most points and
TDs set by West Virginia in
2000 — with 5:36 left in the
first half.
CAMPING WORLD
BOWL: Abdul Adams and
Trishton Jackson made
their Syracuse debuts mem
orable, combining to score
three touchdowns and help
ing the 17th-ranked Orange
secure their first 10-win
season since 2001 by topping
No. 15 West Virginia 34-18 in
the Camping World Bowl on
Friday.
Adams rushed for two
first-half scores, and Jack-
son hauled in a TD pass from
Eric Dungey on the first play
of the fourth quarter for Syr
acuse (10-3), which survived
a game that featured eight
lead changes.
Associated Press
