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About The Oconee enterprise. (Watkinsville, Oconee County, Ga.) 1887-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 19, 2013)
» . m ^ 0hr (§tmw Enterprise Oconee boys top ( \ / Spartans defeat t„„i g~\ 4.,. V -% — / A 4- nr: 11, Jackson County C2 ] il f 1 o o n i': Washington-Wilkes Cl SECTION THREE THURSDAY • 19 DECEMBER 2013 Ryne Dennis From the Press Box Hope your stocking is full of basketball We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Now, the figgy pudding is up to you, we don’t condone the eating of that. This is it, our last newspaper before the big day is upon us. But of course that doesn’t mean that we here, especially us in the sports department, won’t have our ear to the ground to bring you everything that happens with the wrestling and basketball teams over the break. Continue following us @TheOEnews for scores and updates on games and events that continue throughout the holidays. But enough shameless plugs about our twitter handle, let’s think about why we’re so thankful to be celebrating the holidays. Of course friends and family come to mind (I have two holiday parties to attend this weekend with lots of both), and spending time with them is better than opening that gift you’ve been drooling over since last May. I’m thankful to have a good job and work with good people every day. Of course part of that has to do with how thankful I am to cover sports for a living. My parents like to tell the story of me as a kid, going to events that mainly involved my dad who was a physical education coach and teacher. They tell me that I would go to softball games and do anything but watch the games. I would go to football games and stare off into space. But at basketball games, I would sit in mom’s lap while dad ran the scoreboard for the middle school teams and my head would go back and forth the entire game, watching play after play until the final buzzer sounded. I guess that’s continued to this day, which is why I enjoy cover ing the local basketball teams, and why I’m thankful that we have some good teams and players to watch this year. The Athens Academy boys picked up their first win last week, thanks in part to standout point guard Eric Williams, who can be as smooth a player as you will see on the court. North Oconee’s girls team, led by seniors Ginny Channell and Carmen Williams, has been one of the top girl’s teams in the state the past few seasons. The Titans have looked much improved this season as well, with great play from the likes of Ethan Dobberstein, Jaime Quintero, Cody McEnaney and Collin McDonald. Oconee County’s girls are beginning to play much improved basketball, looking like a team that is figuring out new coach Jeanette Looney’s system. The Warriors’ boys team has looked like a new team this sea son with a boost from James Howell and the excellent play of junior Jalen Bonds and Chance Peden. First-year head coach Richard Wehunt seems to have the program going in the right direction. Speaking of Wehunt, be sure to read Oconee the Magazine when it comes out in a couple weeks, as there will be an article delving into his basketball life as well as health issues he encountered this past summer. There I go shamelessly plugging again. Have a safe and happy holiday everyone! Ryne Dennis is a sports writer of The Oconee Enterprise. Opinions expressed are those of the writer. ¥ Lady Braves defeat MB MS in overtime by Derek Wiley Taking advantage of two Malcom Bridge Middle turnovers in the final minute of overtime, Oconee Middle edged the Lady Lightning 44-41 last Wednesday. “It means a lot to them,” OCMS coach Shelynn Scott said. “This atmosphere is always crazy. It’s hard to get them to settle down and play.” The Lady Braves raced out to a 10-6 lead at the end of the first quar ter but MBMS went on a 6-0 run to end the second period and led 18-14 at halftime. OCMS forward Eric Cross, who finished with 16 points, scored to give the Lady Braves a 1 -point lead with 2:32 remaining in the third period. After back-to-back buckets by Sara Bailey Lakatos gave the Lady Lightning a 24-21 advantage enter ing the fourth quarter, OCMS scored the first four points of the period to retake the lead. Hannah Byrom then knocked down a 3-pointer to give the lead back to MBMS. After the Braves took a 30-27 lead with 2:27 to play, the Lightning came right back and went up 34-30 on two baskets from Colby Wilson. A layup by Cheyenne Boswell fol lowed by two more points in the paint from Cross with 50 seconds remaining tied the game at 34-34 and sent it into overtime. The Lady Lightning led 39-36 with 1:51 left to play but the Braves answered with a 5-0 run capped off by a Cross bucket to take a 41-39 lead with 1:15 remaining. “She’s a special player,” Scott said of Cross. “She has great hands, great feet. She’s a great rebounder. We just need to get her to come into her own and realize her potential.” A basket by MBMS guard Mary Collins Pearson tied the game at 41- 41 with 1:05 to play but turnovers prevented the Lady Lightning from getting back on the scoreboard. All three of Oconee’s final points came from the free throw line. MBMS got to the line with 3 sec onds remaining but missed the front end of a one-and-one. The Lady Lightning were 0-for-7 from behind Oconee Middle School guard Cheyenne Boswell had 13 points in last Wednesday’s overtime win against Malcom Bridge. [Photo by Derek Wiley] the free throw line. “It’s early in the season,” Malcom Bridge coach Kevin Daniel said. “We haven’t had that kind of situa tion yet. We turned the ball over but the thing that hurt us the most was the easy shots we missed early in the fourth quarter and we didn’t make any free throws tonight and they were like 78 percent so that hurt a whole bunch.” Despite the win, Scott also knows her team has to improve. “They can be pleased with this win but they shouldn’t be proud of it,” she said. “We’ve got a lot of work to do, a lot of kinks to work out. We’ve had five players with injuries so we just really have fig ured out our chemistry yet. Everybody’s playing now. We just have to get the reps in.” Streak continues North Oconee senior Ginny Channell scored 16 of the Lady Titans’ 37 points and had 10 rebounds in Tuesday night’s Region 8-AAA victory over previously unbeaten Morgan County. [Photo by Ryne Dennis] Lady Titans top Morgan for 33rd straight region win by Ryne Dennis The Lady Titans last suffered a regular season region loss in February of 2011. That streak will continue at least until 2014 as North Oconee defeated Morgan County 37-30 Tuesday night to run its string of games to 33 in a row. “Every region game is important to us and we just try to take it one game at a time and Morgan had proven they’re a good program and a good team by beating Buford ear lier this year,” head coach Donnie Byrom said. “We knew we needed to take care of our home court, and it’s gravy that it keeps the streak alive at 33.” The Lady Titans last loss in region play was Feb. 1 of 2011 at Hart County, but since that time NOHS has had two consecutive undefeated region seasons and now sits at 3-0 this season in region 8-AAA. North Oconee won’t play another region game until after the new year when they host Jackson County on Jan. 4 and while the streak is good for the program, the Lady Titans have bigger goals in sight for this season. “At some point that [streak] is going to end and our goal is to win a region title and advance to state and to go farther in the state,” Byrom said. “Over the last seven to 10 days our team has really grown up and are building off a foundation of solid defense and that’s a good base to build off of.” see NOHS Hoops page C3 Oconee wrestlers get fourth at Morgan by Ryne Dennis Oconee County’s wrestling squad left Madison feeling good as it walked out of the Morgan County Christmas Classic fourth place in the 12-team field The Warriors placed nine indi viduals in the top 6 of their respec tive weight classes, led by Rudy Rodriguez (106 pounds) and Chris Couch (152), who each placed second. “We made a lot of improve ments this weekend, but we’ve still got a long way to go,” head coach A1 Yauck said. “We defi nitely showed some strides, though.” Rodriguez lost in the finals to the same kid Dalton Flint that beat him in the Panther Invitational finals just a week earlier, but was given a tough break by the offi cial, who stopped the match with Rodriguez leading due to a situa tion he deemed potentially dan gerous. Rodriguez would be taken down following that and fell 8-4. Yauck was impressed at the out ing Couch produced on the mats, making it to the finals of a diffi cult weight class. “He made the finals of a fairly tough weight class and wrestled a guy that had placed at state a cou ple times from Social Circle to a 4-point match,” Yauck said. “He wrestled him really tough and I was impressed with him.” Andrew Harris (132), Rexx Halyburton (170) and heavy weight Tyler Thomas each placed third for the Warriors, while Blake Smith (113), Stepan Amirkhanyan (126) and Drake Dawson (145) came home in fourth. The Warriors finished behind some of the top competition in the state in Banks County, Social Circle and Commerce, three teams that figure to fight for state cham pionships in their respective weight classes. “Overall it was a good showing but Banks is good, Commerce is good and Social Circle are all good,” Yauck said. “We got some work to do to catch up with Banks, but you never know.” It will be a good week to get- three injured senioirs back, as they wrestle in two big tournaments this weekend, starting with the Classic City Championships at Clarke Central Friday night. The Warriors will then host the Tommy Warren Duals Saturday, a tournament that will expand from 10 to 12 teams this season The Ellis Pain Center/Oconee Enterprise Athlete of the Week Oconee County junior wrestler Rudy Rodriguez finished second at the Panther Invitational and the Morgan Christmas Classic. [Photo by Ryne Dennis]. Rodriguez places second at two competitive tournaments by Ryne Dennis The old adage goes, “If it wasn’t for bad luck there’d be no luck at all.” That would almost be the case for Oconee County junior wrestler Rudy Rodriguez, except he’s out to prove that he can make his own luck. Last season Rodriguez, then a sophomore, was in arguably the toughest Area of any classification in the state of Georgia, finishing fifth and just one spot away from making the state tournament. The four ahead of him? They each finished in the top four at the state tournament. The guy that won the state in his weight class? Rodriguez lost to him three times in three crucially close matches. The past two weeks, Rodriguez has finished second in the Panther Invitational and the Morgan County Christmas Classic to Dalton Flint of Commerce, the first a tough match for Rodriguez, but the second was an 8-4 decision that could have been Ellis Pain Center ATHENS-BOGART COMMERCE ROYSTON decided on an officials call. Still, the Ellis Pain Center/Oconee Enterprise Athlete of the Week is determined to make his own luck. “Hopefully this is my year to do big things at Area, I just have to keep working hard,” Rodriguez said. “I know who I have and who I’m going to meet at the Area tour nament.” Rodriguez began this year in the 113 weight class where he was in over his weight, so he moved down to 106, where the only person to defeat him is Flint. Head coach' A1 Yauck believes Rodriguez has all the tools to take that next step this season. “I think he’s going to have a shot to do well and he’s going to have to work and keep getting better, every body else is,” Yauck said. “But he hasn’t lost to anybody in AAA yet at 106.” With the Area Duals on the hori zon, Rodriguez will be focusing on each match, making sure that he lands in the state tournament of the traditionals this season. “You know you work hard every day in the wrestling room to keep getting better and take it one match at a time and you can’t look forward to anyone,” Rodriguez said. “Just like coach Yauck says, ‘Fear none, respect all.’” The Ellis Pain Center/Oconee Enterprise Athlete of the Week is chosen by the sports staff of The Oconee Enterprise. Local coaches are welcome to email their nomina tions to sports@oconeeenter- prise.com by Monday at 10 a.m. Ellis Pain Center can be reached at www.ellispain.com.
