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About The Commerce news. (Commerce, Ga.) 1???-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 26, 2007)
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.
