Newspaper Page Text
1B
THE COMMERCE (GA.) NEWS
WEDNESDAY,
DECEMBER 26, 2007
CHS Wrestling
Tigers Seek Strong Showing At Keen Classic
Tourney To Be Test Of
Wrestlers' Progress This Year
The Commerce Tiger wres
tling squad will get a measure
of how good it really is this
Friday at the Keen Classic in
Jefferson.
The Tigers are 9-0 in dual
matches and have won two
tournaments and placed fourth
in another — but Jefferson is the
standard by which high school
wrestling is judged in Georgia.
Wrestling begins at 9:00, and
the Dragons are expected to
finish first.
It will be the Tigers’ first meet
ing with Jefferson this season,
and will help them get a better
measure of themselves. “You
have to wrestle good people
to get better,” observes Coach
Kendall Love.
Last week, the Tigers finished
fourth in the South Forsyth
Tournament last weekend. The
Tigers wound up with 188.5
points. Jackson County won
the event with 207.5 points,
North Forsyth was second
with 206.5 and South Forsyth
was third with 191.
“The interesting thing was we
were only 18 points out of first
place,” said Love, who pointed
out that all of the teams finish
ing above the Tigers were Class
AAA or AAAA schools.
“On Friday, I didn’t think we
wrestled well, so I challenged
the boys to step up and wrestle
up on Saturday, and they did,”
said Love. “We made up a lot
of ground.”
The Tigers ended up placing
more people than any other
Addison Davis has the advantage in a recent contest.
Dustin McClain works over an opponent during a recent match.
school, eight, but didn’t have
the higher finishes needed to
score better.
Doug Maloch and Nick
Arostegui won first in the 119
and 130-pound classes. Addison
Davis finished second at 103,
Dillion Desean was third at 112,
Dustin McClain was fourth at
140, Phillip Edwards won third at
145, Tommy Sears was fourth at
152, and Terrance Martin placed
fourth at 160.
Teams wrestled four round-
robin matches Friday night
and those with the best records
went into an eight-man bracket
Saturday, said Love .
“I thought we had some tough
draws on Friday,” he said. “For
example, Jon Cash, a state
qualifier last year at 135, in
pool matches on Friday drew
the guys who won first, second,
third and fourth places. You
could not have hand picked a
worse draw for him. If he gets
a different draw, we may win
the tournament, but there are
a lot of ifs.”
Love pointed out that Tiger
heavyweight Baxter Barnes
cruised through the Friday
pool at 4-0, but got a tough
draw on Saturday.
“He was 4-1; he had a great
weekend,” Love said.
While he says he’s pleased
with his team’s progress so
far this season, Love said this
week’s practices would be used
to work on weaknesses.
“We’ll concentrate on our
weaknesses, and I hope to see
some improvements in those
areas on Friday,” he said. “I’ve
been pleased with the prog
ress so far, but I do think there
are a lot of things we need to
get better at. We’re well on our
way if we keep working hard
and stay healthy.”
Drake Cash takes a shot
during recent Tiger action.
CHS Basketball
Holiday
Tournament
Starts Friday
The Commerce Tigers and
Lady Tiger basketball teams
will host the WJJC Holiday
Classic Friday and Saturday,
and both will be looking
to avenge earlier losses to
Dawson County in the first
round .
The Lady Tigers will take
on Dawson County at 7:00,
followed by the Tigers vs.
the Dawson Tigers. The Lady
Tigers hope to reverse a 35-23
setback suffered Saturday,
Dec. 15, while the Tigers will
look for some improvement
over Dec. 15’s 72-42 loss.
Both teams are experienc
ing some frustration, and both
are trying to adapt to new
schemes from new coaches.
Coach Eddie McCurley’s
ladies have played solid
defense, but are looking for
some points.
“When you hold someone
Please Turn to Page 2B
East Jackson’s Brandon Rucker led the Eagles night, picking up 15 points on the game.
in scoring against North Oconee Thursday Photo by Lyn Sengupta
ECHS Basketball
Eagles Win Big Over Titans
By Brandon Reed
The East Jackson Eagles entered
Thursday night’s game looking
for a rebound from a close loss
to the Jackson County Panthers,
and to a season-opening loss in a
rematch with the North Oconee
Titans.
They got both with a 75-50 win
over the previously undefeated
Titans at home.
“We played extremely well,”
said Eagles head boys’ basket
ball coach Brian Turner. “Monday,
Tuesday and Wednesday, we
worked on going full speed, and
we did (on Thursday). The kids
just did terrific.”
Brandon Rucker led the team
in scoring with 15 points. Kolby
Gilbert added 12, and Brandon
Garrett 11, but Turner said it was
a pure team effort.
“Everybody contributed,” he
said. “We actually started C.J.
Brown. I told (the team) Monday
I was going to have a hustle start
er. Whoever showed that they
were going to work all the time
was going to start, and C.J. was
the unanimous choice with the
coaches. He had an outstanding
game. He rarely gets to play, but
he works every day in practice,
and it was good for him. I was
proud to see the way he got out
there and played. He played with
the same energy as he practiced
with.”
Turner said the increased per
formance was seen from all of his
players Thursday night.
“All the kids stepped up,” Turner
said. “We were 15 for 20 from the
free throw line, which is far better
than we’ve done all year. I was
very pleased with the effort of all
the kids.”
Turner said he brought Jackson
Fisher, a JV player, up for the last
two and a half minutes of the
game, and saw the same kind of
energy out of him.
“We were up 20 or 25 points,
and it would have been easy to
just let it go, but there he was, div
ing and crawling all over the floor
trying to get to the ball. That’s the
kind of effort we’ve been trying
to get, and we got it (Thursday)
night.”
Turner said more important
than getting this win going into
the Christmas break was the kind
of game play he saw from his
team in the game.
Lady Eagles Fall To North Oconee In Rematch
By Brandon Reed
The East Jackson Lady Eagles
had another close finish, but came
up short against the North Oconee
Lady Titans Thursday night, as
they lost 51-48, dropping their re
cord to 4-5.
It was a closely contested
match-up, going back and forth
throughout, as North Oconee
held a slim 16-12 lead at the end of
the first quarter. The Lady Eagles
fought back in the second quarter,
and went into the half with a 24-
21 lead. Both teams hit the court
running after the half, with North
Oconee taking another slim lead
at the end of the third, 38-34. The
Lady Eagles fought back through
out the fourth, but came up three
points shy at the end.
“We proved that we are a much-
improved team since the first game
of the season, which was against
North Oconee,” said East Jackson
head girls’ basketball coach Amy
Larimer. “I do not believe that they
expected us to come out and play
them as tough as we did. I feel that
we are continuing to improve and
if we consistently play hard, wins
will start to come our way.”
Marley Pullian led the Lady
Eagles in scoring with 11 points.
Dynelle Todman added 10, with
Autumn Wilbanks scoring nine
and Dane Gaillard picking up sev
en. Emma Turner pulled down 12
rebounds, Wilbanks had nine and
Todman six. Terin Gillespie had
four steals on the night and led in
assists with three.