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About The Oconee enterprise. (Watkinsville, Oconee County, Ga.) 1887-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 19, 2013)
▼ DECEMBER 19, 2013 THE OCONEE ENTERPRISE C3 Hayden Hudson had five points in Athens Academy’s 63-58 victory against Washington-Wilkes Friday night. [Photo by Derek Wiley] Defense leads Spartans to first by Derek Wiley Sparked by a new more aggressive defense, Athens Academy defeated Washington-Wilkes 63-58 Friday night at home. The Spartans jumped out an 11-3 lead before Washington-Wilkes went on a 13-0 run to go ahead 16- 11 early in the second period. Two free throws by Eric Williams ended the run with 5:58 remaining and Athens Academy’s defense took over from their, turning Tiger turnovers into easy baskets. “The guys started trusted the new defense we put in and they’re just getting better,” Spartans coach James Banks said. “We just try to get after people and play to our tempo. We just put it in so we’re real proud about that. If we can just keep building upon that, we can give ourselves a chance to be in every game. It will be good for us.” Athens Academy took a 17-16 lead with 4:50 remaining in the sec ond period and never trailed again. At halftime, the Spartans were up 28-22. “We’ve just been working on our defense,” Williams said. “We got off to a rocky start but we picked up the pressure with the press and stuff. We get most of our motivation plays off defense.” Athens Academy scored most of its points through layups. “We want to attack the rim,” Banks said. “The basket will start looking bigger and bigger if we do that.” Nobody got to the rim more Friday night than Williams, who fin ished with 29 points. “Our goal is to get layups,” Williams said. “1 was just feeding off my teammates. The energy they bring is good and when I feed off that, the others get hot and we start working as a team.” Athens Academy expanded its lead to 11 points midway through the third quarter but Washington- Wilkes kept battling and got within four with 6:15 left to play. Back-to-back layups by Hayden Hudson put the Spartans up 51-43 with 5:11 to go. A Christian Keiser 3-pointer with 4.4 seconds remaining got the Tigers back within three points but Williams knocked down two free home win throws to seal the victory. After starting the season 0-5, which included two losses' in the Titan Turkey Classis at North Oconee before Thanksgiving, Athens Academy has now won two in a row. Banks believes those early games were good for the Spartans, who travel to Oglethorpe County this Friday before taking some time off for Christmas and New Years. “That’s one of the reasons why we wanted to play in the North Oconee tournament,” Banks said. “It’s really helping us. We took two losses but at the same time, we got something to gain because we were able to get our legs up under us and get some continuity with the guys.” Lightning shoot lights out at Oconee Middle by Derek Wiley Behind a superb shooting night, Malcom Bridge Middle School’s boys basketball team defeated Oconee Middle 71-45 last Wednesday to remain unbeaten. The Lightning jumped out a 17-10 lead at the end of the first period and never trailed. “We got good kids that play hard and they’ve got good kids that play hard,” MB MS coach Randy Cain said. “We got on the upper end of it tonight. They struggled shooting shots that 1 know go in for them. 1 think if the roles were reversed and they had won, they’re going to say the same things. We got the better end of it tonight. When we shoot the ball well from the perimeter, we’re a much better team because we’re big inside and when we don’t shoot the ball well outside, we become a pret ty average or above average team but when we’re balanced like tonight, we’re a pretty solid team.” The Lightning were led by eighth graders Jack Mangel, Garrison Britt and Greg Pottier. Mangel had 22 points, Britt had 20 and Pottier added four points. “Our eighth graders have been great leaders,” Cain said. “Garrison Britt, Greg Pottier and Jack have really been leading us. Those are three pretty good players.” Cain was also pleased with the effort from the rest of his players. “We shared the ball on offense,” he said. “A lot of kids got on the board and scored. When you do that in a middle school game, that’s a pretty good night. Even if it’s two or four points, you just want contribu tions and we played 15 kids tonight. Everybody went in and contributed. I enjoy coaching this group very much.” Corderius Paschal led Oconee with 12 points as the Braves suf fered their first loss. “We didn’t shoot well and they shot the lights out,” OCMS coach Jace Richard said. “It was a pretty simple game. The thing I was frus trated on is they won the rebounding battle and they won the free throw battle and if you win rebounds and free throws, you’re going to win the game 90 percent of the time. I think we’re a pretty good defensive team so to put up 71 points with 6-minute quarters, you had to have a pretty good night from all aspects of the game. My hats off to them. They are a great team. They’re always well coached. They got it done tonight and we didn’t.” Malcom Bridge will host the Braves on Friday, Jan. 17. Cain expects the rematch to be much closer. “It’s certainly good to beat your rival,” he said. “Every time we play them, I expect a close game, every time. Tonight was very much an exception. Some shots they usually hit just didn’t fall. It’s a good win and we’ll expect them to come back at us hard.” Malcom Bridge Middle School eighth grader Garrison Britt had 20 points in last Wednesday’s win at Oconee Middle. [Photo by Derek Wiley] Westminster Christian Academy guard Joe Zehna had 24 points in last Thursday’s overtime win. [Photo by Derek Wiley] Lions hold on at home in overtime by Derek Wiley Leading by 16-points at halftime last Thursday, it appeared all Westminster Christian Academy’s boys basketball team had to do in the second half was show up. The Lions opponent, Bethlehem Christian, had other plans. After scoring just five points in the third period and watching its lead shrink to one, WCA held on to defeat the Knights 62-60 in overtime. “I think we got really complacent at halftime and we came out in the third quarter and were lazy,” WCA coach Matthew Payne said. “We weren’t moving. We weren’t look ing to penetrate. They did a good job with their guards up front of trying to stop penetration.” Senior guard Joe Zehna, who led the Lions with 24 points, agreed with his coach. “We didn’t come at with the same intensity that we did in the first half,” he said. “We were just really pumped in the first half. We just have to learn how to keep it up.” Scoring at will, WCA raced out to a 17-8 lead after one period and 38- 22 at intermission. Zehna had 18 points at halftime. “They were playing me up tight and I was able to beat them off the dribble,” Zehna said. “I had a lot of early fast breaks, which pumped me up.” Bethlehem changed its defense in the second half and held Zehna scoreless in the third period as the Knights got within 43-42 heading to the fourth quarter. “They came out in a zone and pressured me with two people up high and that kind of changed our whole offense up,” Zehna said. The Lions opened the fourth peri od on a 6-0 run. However, Bethlehem answered with back-to-back 3-pointer to go ahead 50-49. A basket by C.J. Smith, who fin ished with 15 points, gave WCA a 51-50 lead with 3:55 left to play and the Lions never trailed again. Bethlehem did tie the game on four occasions. Zehna broke the final tie on a pair of free throws with 17.6 seconds remaining. “They took the lead and for us to fight back from that when they had all the momentum just shows a lot about the guys,” Payne said. You got to win games in ugly ways some times. Blowing a 16-point lead is ugly.” The Lions traveled to Heritage Christian Friday and defeated the Crusaders 49-26 to win their third game in four days. Zehna led the way again with 16 points. Will Smith and C. J. Smith each had 13 points. WCA is 6-2 overall and 2-1 in region play. NOHS wrestlers continue to improve by Derek Wiley Putting four wrestlers on the podi um, North Oconee’s young program continued to grow up Friday and Saturday at Apalachee High School. Despite missing all of Saturday’s action due to taking the ACT, heavyweight Logan Thomas racked up enough points during Friday’s round robin to place third. Competing at 145 pounds, Michael Von Kutzleben took third for the Titans. Steven Kreyenbuhl also placed third at 220. At 160, Will Newman finished in fourth. First-year head coach Walker Daniel has seen improvement in all of the wrestlers. “Absolutely the guys are getting better,” Daniel said. “Michael [Von Kutzleben] was in a pretty tough bracket and for him to take third that was pretty good. The two guys that finished ahead of him were really pretty good wrestlers. “Will came out late after football. He’s going to end up being really good. He’s already competitive in the varsity. He’s a guy that it seems like week in and week out, he’s 100 percent better the next week than he was the week before. Even in this [Apalachee] tournament, he ended up pinning a guy that had pinned him like two weeks ago. He’s rapid ly improving. He’s probably the hardest working kid I’ve ever been around in whole my entire life.” As a team, NOHS finished sev enth out of nine squads, which Daniel expected since he split the team and took some of younger kids to a junior varsity duals tournament in West Forsyth to make sure they got more matches. “We probably could’ve done bet ter,” Daniel said. “We didn’t finish great in the team standings. One of the reasons for that is we had a real ly tough JV duals tournament. There were a lot of 6A teams and they were guaranteed five matches. I wanted to make sure they got the guaranteed matches. For our younger guys, it’s making sure they had a chance to work on some things, where at the varsity tourna ment, they might be holding on for dear life.” The Titans were also missing one of their most experience wrestlers in Hudson Morgan, who hasn’t com peted since hurting his knee at the NOHS Duals almost two weeks ago. The Titans have two big tourna ments remaining before they break for the holidays. They’ll compete in the Classic City Championship at Clarke Central on Friday and then at Oconee County on Saturday in the Tommy Warren Duals. WCA cruises past Lady Knights by Derek Wiley ' Facing the same team it beat by nearly 50 points on the road just three weeks before, Westminster Christian’s girls basketball team could have easily overlooked Bethlehem Christian last Thursday. The Lady Lions did not. Behind forward Katie Leach’s 18 points, 12 rebounds and four blocks, WCA dominated the Lady Knights 38-9 to improve to 4-1 overall. “You have to respect every oppo nent you play,” WCA assistant coach Keenan Klayman said. “Playing a team twice is a great way to gauge you’re progress in the season so far. We’ve got a lot of respect for Bethlehem. I think they gave us a tighter this time than they did last time. “It’s always a different team the second time you seem them because every team is improving and they’ve seen us before. They know what we like to do. They know what’s in our arsenal. I’m proud of how the girls responded to that. We’re getting better as a team at moving the ball to the middle of the floor. We need to knock down more shots but all and all the girls are playing aggressive and that’s what we ask for.” The Lady Lions jumped out to a 10-0 lead as Bethlehem didn’t score its first basket until 50 seconds remaining in the first period. WCA then expanded its lead to 20-3 at halftime and 27-5 at the end of the third period. Madi McCullough added seven points and five assists for the Lady hitting a shot like that, I think it’s a huge moment for her and the poten tial she has for the next three and a half years.” Weynand finished with five points as did senior point guard Carmen Williams. The Titans’ boys also played Morgan County, but it was tough for NOHS to hang with the extremely athletic Bulldogs, falling 77-36. NOHS was led by Cody McEnanay’s 12 points. “Overall the kids played hard and I told the kids that I don’t think the final score was as bad as it looked because I don’t feel like we turned the ball over today very often, we just didn’t hit shots and shorten the game like we wanted to,” head coach Dave Gascho said. NOHS is off until Friday, Dec. 27 when they play in the Swirlee’s Fro Yo Classic at East Jackson. NOHS Hoops CONTINUED FROM PAGE Cl The Lady Titans’ defense was on full display Tuesday night, holding the Lady Bulldogs 30 points below their season average and handing them their first loss of the season. At the end of the first quarter, Morgan County led 6-4 and then led 12-11 at the half and while it looked sloppy and physical at times, Byrom felt just the opposite, as he was pleased with the defense his Lady Titans were exhibiting. “Everybody looks at offense, but what they don’t understand is that both teams were working their tails off on defense,” Byrom said. “It became a battle of who was going to blink first on defense. What you’ll find is that if two good basketball teams get together, and those were two good basketball teams, it can become a low scoring game because neither team is will ing to secede a single possession.” The North Oconee offense did start to click midway through the third quarter and the Lady Titans took the lead for good on an old fashioned 3-point play by Ginny Channell with just over 3 minutes to play in the period. Channell led the Lady Titans with 16 points and 10 rebounds but what might have clinched the victo ry for NOHS was early in the fourth quarter when freshman Emma Weynand hit a shot and was fouled to give North Oconee its largest lead of the game at the time, 28-19. “The key play was when we had a freshman on the court in Emma Weynand and she got an And-1 basket and went 3-for-3 on free throws in the fourth quarter,” Byrom said. “To be a freshman and to be able to be on the court and taking care of the basketball and Lauren McCullough drives past a Bethlehem Christian defender in last Thursday’s win at home. [Photo by Derek Wiley] Lions. “The whole idea was to try to work the ball in the middle and get the ball to the low post and play a high-low game,” Klayman said. “It’s just a matter of reading what the defense did. They defended the middle of the zone fairly well. We didn’t get the ball to the middle as much as we’d like but we certainly rebounded very well and had a lot of second chance opportunities. We definitely have a lot with Katie [Leach]. Haley Wingo often times leads the team in rebounds. Even some of our guards and our smaller players are able to get some rebounds. That’s the kind of effort we’re really proud of tonight. Regardless of what’s going on the game, that kind of effort is encour aging.” The following night, Westminster Christian suffered just its second loss of the season, falling 49-39 at Heritage Christian Academy, in Braselton. The Lady Lions trailed by 25 points in the first half but were able to fight back and get within eight points in the fourth quarter. “They came out swinging and hit us early,” Klayman said. “We were proud of the way our girls respond ed in the second half by clawing back into the game.” Madi McCullough led WCA with 17 points in the loss.
