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THE COMMERCE (GA) NEWS, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2007 -- PAGE 3B
Tigers Improving; Seek 1st Win
T. Green looks for an open man under the basket during the
Athens Academy game.
Coach Chad Bridges is seeing
some incremental improvement
in his boys’ basketball season,
and he’d like to see them break
into the win column this week.
After a game Tuesday (details of
which were not available by press
time) at Prince Avenue, the 0-4
Tigers are slated to host Hebron
Christian Academy Friday
and travel to Dawson County
Saturday.
“We’re going to try to increase
our pace offensively to get a few
more shots up,” Bridges said.
“We’ll try to do that with a little
more defensive pressure. I’m hop
ing to see continued improve
ment on the offensive end. We’ve
gotten better each game, and if
we continue to improve, we’ll be
okay.
“That’s what I keep telling the
guys. The great thing about bas
ketball is that everybody plays in
the tournament. If we can con
tinue to improve, I think it’s more
important to play well at tourna
ment time than now.”
The biggest problem right now
is shooting, and Bridges hopes
time will bring some relief.
“If we execute and get good
shots, eventually the shooting per
centage will go up,” Bridges said.
Social Circle 48, CHS 38
“We started slow and had a poor
shooting night,” Bridges summa
rized. “I thought we played hard,
but we didn’t shoot well. I don’t
think we scored in the first four
minutes, then we went cold in the
second half.”
Matt Adams led the scor
ing with 11 points, followed by
Anthony Norris with nine, Cohen
Cooke with eight and T. Green
with seven.
Spartans 61, Tigers 33
Last Thursday’s game at Athens
Academy featured both “a poor
shooting performance” and “the
defense did not play well,” Bridges
said.
Some of the poor shooting,
the coach theorized, could have
been related to the uniqueness
of the Spartan gym, where the
free-standing goals cause a bit of
depth perception difficulty.
“We were five for 19 from the
free throw line, which is worse
than we usually do. Saturday, we
were five for eight.”
Cooke scored 11, T. Green five
and Wilcher four in a night in
which the Tigers were down 30-10
at the half.
ACS 67, CHS 57
Things picked up a little Saturday
night at Athens Christian School,
but the end result was the fourth
loss of the season.
“The team played its best game
by far, but a slow third quarter
and foul trouble ultimately did us
in,” Bridges commented. “If we
can play with the same intensity
and effort this week, we should
have a lot more exciting games
ahead of us.”
Three Tigers got into double
figures. Cooke led scoring with
13 points, followed by Drake
Cash with 11, Norris with 10,
Adams with eight, Cameron
Billings with six and T. Green
with five.
—Lady Tigers Notch First Win
Cont. from Page 1B
really trying to take one or two
phases at a time — now we’re work
ing on our rebounding — and when
you get that where you want it to
be, you go to another. As long as
we can see our game improving,
we will take that and try to build in
it and work toward the end of the
season. Some victories along the
way would be nice, because when
you win, it builds confidence, and
confidence does a lot for how you
play.”
SC 73, CHS 30
There weren’t many highlights
to the Social Circle game Dec. 4.
The Redskins’ leading scorer, Je-
lessa Williams, put 32 points on
the board, 27 of them in the first
half, something McCurley attrib
uted to a lack of emotion from his
squad.
“She’s a good player. After she
makes a few, you’d think you’d
move up on her, but we continued
to let her shoot.”
Lauren Jones’ nine points were
high for Commerce. Brittany
Sewell scored eight, Jasmine Sand
ers six and Morgan Mather five.
CHS 39, Spartans 27
“I was very pleased with the de
fensive intensity,” McCurley said.
The Tigers built as much as a 16-
point lead, putting them away with
a 12-2 third quarter.
“We came out and wanted to fo
cus on defense,” McCurley said.
“We did that. I was pleased with the
effort there. They hadn’t beaten
Athens Academy in a number of
years, so that was a good win and
gets us a region win, which is al
ways important.”
Sewell led the offense with 10
points, Grier added nine and Jessie
Flint contributed seven.
ACS 55, CHS 43
In spite of the score, McCurley
was excited about the Lady Tigers’
play.
“We probably played our best
game, except for the shooting,”
the coach said. “We controlled the
game up until about the middle of
the fourth quarter. If we had made
some of our easier shots and free
throws ...”
The Lady Tigers made 14 of 33
free throws.
“They made theirs. That was the
difference,” McCurley said.
The game was tied at 20 at the
half. Commerce led most of the
third quarter, but Athens Christian
rallied to take a 37-32 lead, only to
see the Lady Tigers come back at
the beginning of the fourth period
and go up by a point. As the game
waned and Commerce began foul
ing to force Athens Christian to the
free throw line, the Eagles made 13
of 16 from the charity stripe.
“We were getting good shots. A
basket here and a couple of free
throws and it would have been a
different game,” McCurley said.
“Honestly, except for the shooting,
I was pleased with the rest of the
game. We didn’t turn it over much.
They pressed the whole game and
we handled it. We got good shots,
but we missed a lot of shots.”
Overall, McCurley thinks his
squad is coming around.
“I think they’re starting to see
some things are getting better.
Shooting just isn’t one of them,” he
said. “The kids are still learning how
to win. As we get to the latter parts
of the game, they haven’t had much
success. They don’t know how to
come from a few points down and
grab control of the game or how to
hold on from a few points up.”
Brake Failure
Adds Excitement
To Road Trip
Commerce’s varsity Tigers
and Lady Tigers found out
last Thursday that a road trip
can be exciting. Too exciting,
maybe .
A brake failure on the school
bus carrying both teams to
Athens Academy resulted in
a close call where Waterworks
Road ends at Hwy. 335.
“It was our first road game
and my first time on a school
bus in 16 years, and I thought
I was going to get killed,” com
mented Lady Tigers coach
Eddie McCurley.
The bus was slowing for the
stop sign when the brakes
went out.
“I looked up and he said,
‘We’re about to have a wreck,’”
McCurley said.
There was no traffic coming
from the Nicholson side, but
an SUV was coming from the
Jefferson end. Massey was
able to turn the bus south
onto Hwy. 326, and the Jeep
was able to go around him on
the left.
“Wes did a great job of keep
ing us from getting hit. The
driver of the Cherokee did
a good job also,” McCurley
commented.
Massey called back to the
school and another bus was
dispatched to the scene,
but the games with Athens
Academy were delayed by
about 45 minutes.
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