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East Jackson Boys Win Two Back-To-Back
The Eagles find themselves in the
midst of a two-game winning streak.
2B
IB
THE COMMERCE (GA.) NEWS
WEDNESDAY,
DECEMBER 17,2008
Commerce Basketball
East Jackson Wrestling
Commerce Wins First Home Game Over Hebron, 80-75
Tigers Host Apalachee Saturday
By Justin Poole
The Commerce High School Tigers are 2-0 in region
play.
After picking up an 80-75 win over Hebron Christian
Academy last Saturday the team is in good shape before
the Christmas break.
Coming up this week, the Tigers will host Apalachee on
Saturday before having next week off. Tip-off is scheduled
for 8:30 p.m. following the Lady Tigers’ game.
The Tigers hope that with two wins under their belt and
having the home-court advantage, the Apalachee rematch
will go in their favor. Coach Chad Bridges said that the
game should be a good measure of where the team is now.
Commerce should play with more confidence in Friday’s
game, according to Bridges.
Last week, the Tigers faced rival Jefferson on Friday
night.
Commerce played well for three periods against the
Dragons, but Jefferson pulled out a 58-46 win.
Bridges said that the team played pretty well, except for
the second period where Commerce faltered.
While the Jefferson game was only for local pride,
Saturday’s game counts in the region standings.
Commerce was a little slow at the start as Hebron quick
ly jumped out in front. The Tigers warmed up quickly and
overtook Hebron before the end of the first quarter, 16-13.
In the second eight minutes, Hebron scored 22 points but
was still behind as Commerce picked up 23 points.
An aggressive Tiger offense kept Commerce five points
ahead at the end of the third quarter, 58-53. Hebron dug in
and reached Commerce with a little over three minutes left
in the fourth quarter. With the score tied 64-64, The Tigers
pulled back into the lead with a field goal.
With just over a minute left, Hebron once again caught
Commerce, tying the board 72-72.
Commerce went on top as the clock got down under a
minute. Bridges reminded his troops that the game wasn’t
over and with 20 seconds still on the clock, Commerce
pulled ahead 78-75.
Hebron still had a chance of forcing the game into over- Commerce’s Cameron Billings shoots around the hands and
arms of Hebron players during Saturday’s region competition.
Continued on page 3B Photo by Justin Poole
East Jackson
Takes Third At
Raider Rumble
By Brandon Reed
It was another strong
showing for the Mat
Eagles of East Jackson,
as they placed third in the
Raider Rumble at West
Laurens High School in
Dublin over the week
end.
East Jackson finished
with 267.5 points, just
half a point behind sec
ond place Dublin, and
seven points behind first
•COMING UP:
- EJCHS Wrestling
- Saturday, Dec. 20,
- @ Fannin County
- 9 a.m. match start
place Toombs County.
Individually, second-
place winners included
Charles Hulett at 112
pounds, Shane Moore
at 130, Luis Verduzco at
152, and Robbie King at
171.
Third-place Eagles
include Victor Equirte at
103, Justin Griffith at 119
Kevin Kesler at 135, and
Michael Nally at 140.
Scott Hill placed fourth
in the 189-pound class.
The Mat Eagles will
travel to Fannin County
for a dual tournament on
Saturday.
Commerce Wrestling
Commerce grappler Casey Drinkard (top) overpowers an Oglethorpe
County opponent during last Wednesday’s match. Drinkard was one of four
wrestlers that won first place in the Apalachee Invitational this weekend.
Photo courtesy of Lynnly Drinkard
CHS Grapplers Win Apalachee Tourney
By Justin Poole
Commerce High School wrestlers are win
ning, but still have room for improvement.
Last week, the Mat Tigers rolled over
Oglethorpe County Wednesday night, then
won the Apalachee tournament on the week
end.
Commerce wrestling coach Kendall Love
said the boys are wrestling better, but still
have some more work before the Area Duals
in January. The key element that Love wants
to improve on is the physical prowess of his
grapplers.
“We are still losing some matches that I felt
like we should have won,’’ Love said. “I feel
like part of the problem is we are just not in
wrestling shape yet.’’
Commerce has two more matches this
week before the break to help prepare the
team for the Jan. 9 Area Duals.
“We will continue to work hard over the
break getting ready for the Area Duals in
early January,’’ said Love.
Friday night, the Mat Tigers host Stephens
County and White County. The match begins
at 5 p.m.
On Saturday, Commerce travels to Madison
County to compete in the Madison County
Duals starting at 9:30 a.m.
Last Wednesday, Commerce grapplers won
70-10 over Oglethorpe County. Putting the
Tiger grapplers on top were varsity match
winners Addison Davis, Doug Maloch, Trea
Edwards, Casey Drinkard, Jon Cash, Dustin
Mcclain, Justin Askey, Tyler Austin, Terrence
Martin, Andrew Minish and Jake Hill.
At the Apalachee Invitational this past
weekend, the Tigers faced several high
er classification schools, but scored 659
points for a tournament win, 40 points over
Apalachee’s 616 and over 100 points above
North Hall with 547.
Love said that he felt the wrestlers were
wrestling better, and a lot of the guys com
peted in as many as nine matches during the
tournament.
Commerce posted four first places
from Casey Drinkard (135 pounds), Nick
Arostegui (140 pounds), Phillip Edwards (152
pounds) and Thomas Sears (160 pounds).
Continued on page 3B
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2. Apalachee
616
3. North Hall
547
4. Social Circle
425
5. Oconee County
407
6. Winder-Barrow
374
7. Central Gwinnett
368
8. Oglethorpe County
338
9. Athens Christian
332
10. Johnson (Gainesville)
136
East Jackson Basketball
Lady Eagles Defeat Commerce
By Brandon Reed
The Lady Eagles of East Jackson are riding a wave of success into the Christmas break.
Their good fortune started with a victory last Wednesday against Commerce, then car
ried on to Friday night with a win over Washington-Wilkes.
The success comes after a tough week at the beginning of the month, when the team
dropped games to Stephens County and Oconee County.
The Lady Eagles get a chance to catch their breath now, as they will be out of action until
Dec. 23, when they will travel to Philips Arena in Atlanta to face North Hall.
The Lady Trojans will enter the Dec. 23 pairing looking to rebound from a rough start
to their season, which has seen
them record only one win so
far.
In their last match up, North
Hall took a 63-46 win back in
December of 2007.
Tip-off at Philips Arena is
scheduled for 1 p.m.
Start of December
The first week of December
was one the Lady Eagles would
prefer to forget. It started
with a 63-19 dismantling Dec.
2, at the hands of Stephens
County’s Lady Indians.
East Jackson was hoping for
better luck on Dec. 5, when
they played host to Oconee
County’s Lady Warriors.
Oconee County had won the
last pairing of the two teams,
which occurred in December
of 2007, and the Lady Eagles
wanted to even the score.
Early on, it looked like that
might happen, as East Jackson
moved out to a 21-13 lead at
the end of the first quarter. But
Oconee County began to rally,
and tied the score at 29 going
into the half.
The game continued to go
back and forth, but by the end
of the third quarter, the Lady
Warriors held a slim three-
point lead, 38-35. Oconee
increased the lead during the
final period to come away with
a 54-48 victory.
Autumn Wilbanks led East
Jackson in scoring with 15
points, while Caroline Hicks
scored 13 and Dynelle Todman
added 11. Hicks grabbed seven
Continued on page 3B
East Jackson’s Autumn Wilbanks led in scor
ing against Washington-Wilkes with 19 points,
and also had seven rebounds on the night.
Photo by Brandon Reed