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PAGE 2B - THE MADISON COUNTY (GA) JOURNAL THURSDAY. DECEMBER 12, 2019
Photos by Kyle Funderburk
The Madison County girls’basketball team huddles around head coach Dan Lampe
during a timeout in the third quarter of the Red Raiders’ win over Apalachee.
Girls’ basketball continued from
Despite her effort, Mad
ison County (4-5, 0-0
Region 8-AAAA) still
couldn’t win comfortably
because of what Madison
County head coach Dan
Lampe believed were lazy
fouls. McPherson commit
ted three fouls in a small
window of time in the third
quarter, forcing her to play
with four fouls through the
final quarter. Ella Chancey,
Tiffany Wilson and Caitlyn
Arwood also missed court
time because of fouls in the
second half. Lampe was
critical of McPherson and
the rest of the team.
“Kayla decided to just
start following people indis
criminately and she picked
up three fouls in like 30
seconds,” Lampe said. “We
told them we have to be
smarter because she picked
up her fourth foul and Tif
fany fouled throughout the
game. We had to play that
slow-down style and we
don’t get aggressive in it.
“We’re got to be a smart
er team. We were running
them up and down and
they were right there to be
knocked over and we let
them right back in. We can’t
get out of our own way
sometimes. We get up by 20
points and do every single,
possible thing we can to let
them back in the game.”
Apalachee (2-8, 0-0 Re
gion 8-AAAAAA) capi
talized on the fouls with
stellar free throw shooting.
Before having to bench
most of its lineup because
of foul trouble, Madison
County built a 53-34 lead
in the third quarter, outscor-
ing the Wildcats 12-0 after
halftime. Apalachee ended
the quarter on a 7-2 run,
with all seven points com
ing from the foul line.
The Wildcats further
capitalized by outscoring
the Red Raiders 17-11 in
the fourth quarter. Karrah
Haller started the quarter
with a three-pointer in front
of her bench and Joanna
Goss followed with a short-
range jumper. Haller sunk
another three moments later
to cut the score to 57-49.
Wilson helped keep Mad
ison County afloat late in
the game. At one point, she
scored eight-straight points
to extend the lead to 63-49.
Shots by Kelsey Knox and
Goss cut the lead back to
63-53. A shot by Chanc
ey pushed the lead past 10
points again, but Haller
responded with another
three-pointer and Goss fol
lowed with a layup to bring
Apalachee within seven
points (65-58).
The clock became
Apalachee’s biggest oppo
nent however. They were
forced to try to foul but
Madison County was elu
sive on offense and burned
the clock. A free throw by
McPherson with 20 seconds
left was the last point of the
game. Madison County
won 66-58.
STEPHENS COUNTY
PREVIEW
Madison County opens
Region 8-AAAA play this
Friday night on the road
against Stephens County.
The Red Raiders swept
the Indians last year, but
this year, Stephens County
brings in the experienced
lineup.
After Tuesday’s perfor
mance. Lampe admitted
he doesn’t feel good about
Friday.
“Even though we got the
win, I don’t feel good about
it,” he said. “We’re not play
ing smart. Stephens will run
us out if we play like that.”
Stephens County runs a
similar style as Madison
County. Both play full-
court man and want a faster
tempo. The Indians run the
style with a roster similar to
last years’ while Madison
County returned only one
full-time starter from the
2018-19 season.
“They play like we like,
but we’ve got to be smart
er,” Lampe said. “I keep
harping on that, but I’ve
told them over and over
again. There’s a mental part
of the game, you’ve got to
at some point get it. You
have to know where you’re
supposed to be on defense,
you have to know how to
take angles to drive them
out of bounds.”
LOGANVILLE 54,
MADISON COUNTY 32
The Loganville Red Dev
ils scored first and scored
often Saturday and defeated
the Red Raiders soundly.
After falling behind 12-2
in the first quarter, Madison
County would only bring
the margin below 10 points
once, ultimately cutting the
score to 14-9. From that
point, Loganville went on
a 24-4 run to take a 38-13
lead into halftime, the run
finally ended at 41-13 early
in the third quarter.
COURTNEY
FREEMAN’S
JERSEY
RETIRED
The Madison County
girls’ basketball pro
gram retired Court
ney Freeman’s num
ber 33 after Friday
night’s game against
Elbert County. Free
man spoke to the
home crowd about
her time as a Red
Raider. Head coach
Dan Lampe, Free
man’s teammate and
cousin Lauren Smith
and Red Raider leg
end Shelia Collins
also spoke during the
ceremony.
Photo by Kyle
Funderburk
Wrestling continued from IB
Smith was even more dominant in his
next match, pinning Lanier’s Corey Mo-
relock in the first round. Jackson County’s
Nate McArter pinned Smith in the second
round after Smith led 8-3 after the first
round. Smith moved onto the consolation
bracket where he pinned Jefferson’s Will
Burdick in the semi-finals. Smith ended
the tournament triumphantly by turning a
reversal into a pinfall to defeat Bobby Bea
sley of West Laurens.
JOSH KINCAID 126-LB
Kincaid lost his first tournament of the
season, but he still took home a runner-up
finish. He pinned Jackson County’s Dalton
Hunsinger in the second round. Kincaid
outscored Hunsinger 13-0 before the pin
with two takedowns and three near falls.
Kincaid made even quicker work of his
next opponent, James Connelly of Social
Circle. He advanced to the finals on a for
feit before losing to Chattooga’s Wes Con
ley 7-1. Kincaid was taken down twice and
he scored his only point on an escape.
CHASE BOND — 152-LB
Bond breezed his way through the first
three rounds before succumbing to an in
jury in the finals. He defeated Jefferson’s
Grant Hamilton in the first round (decision,
9-2), Habersham Central’s Grant Williams
in the quarterfinals (decision, 9-0) and La
nier’s Corbin Beumer in the semifinals (pin
fall).
JAXON HOETZEL— 195-LB
Hoetzel’s path to the finals wasn’t any
more of a grind. He opened the tournament
by pinning Calhoun’s Kelly Wells. In the
quarterfinals, he barely led Jackson Coun
ty’s Chase Wester in the closing seconds
of the match before scoring a takedown
and ultimately pinning the Panther. In the
semifinals, Hoetzel pinned Elijah Bums of
Commerce early in the first round.
Hoetzel wrestled all six minutes with
West Laurens’ Brent Carr in the finals. He
trailed 2-1 after the first round, but a slow
start to the second round gave Carr a 5-1
lead and Carr eventually won 7-3.
HAMILTON COOPER — 220-LB
Cooper obliterated the competition of
the opening rounds. He took down Ste
phens County’s Caleb Smallwood early
and scored four near falls in the first round
to take a 13-0 lead. Another near fall in the
second round was enough for Cooper to
win by a technical fall 15-0. He defeated
Calhoun’s Myron Rodriguez 11-0 in the
quarterfinals with three takedowns and two
near falls.
The weekend went south for Cooper in
the semifinals where he was pinned in the
second round by Chase Horn of West Lau
rens. He was forced to forfeit his consola
tion semifinals match.
Cooper salvaged the weekend by taking
care of business in a rematch with Rodri
guez. this time Cooper won by a technical
fall. He started the match with a takedown
and opened the second round with a rever
sal. He followed the reversal with three
near falls.
TEAM RESULTS
Madison County tied Commerce for
eighth place out of 18 teams with 108
points overall. However the Red Raiders
brought the smallest group of wrestlers
to the tournament (six). Jackson County
finished first, Jefferson placed second and
Gilmer finished third.
Boys Basketball
Bad first half dooms
Red Raiders at Apalachee
By Kyle Funderburk
kyle@mainstreetnews. com
The Madison County
boys’ basketball team had
a knack for playing close
games with more athletic
teams. But Apalachee had
more advantages than just
athleticism.
Three Wildcats scored
at least 16 points and two
of them scored in the 20s,
leading Apalachee to a 78-
59 win. Adam Metts coun
tered with 26 points of his
own and Nolan Hill added
10 points, but the rest of the
team combined for 23 points
“We had a tough night
tonight,” said head coach
Bryan Bird. “We started off
playing with them a little
bit but I thought Apalachee
just competed a little harder
than we did. Apalachee did a
good job offensively and we
just had a hard time staying
with them.
“It was one of those
games where we just didn’t
have that competitive edge
that we needed tonight. We
have to learn from that be
cause Friday night is when
the games really start count
ing.”
Brayson Hayes scored 25
points for Apalachee and
Jamonte Wallace wasn’t
far behind with 24 points,
but Montee Flahn had the
hot hand in the first quar
ter while the game was
still close. Flahn scored 10
points in the first quarter and
finished with 16.
Metts matched Flahn
nearly shot-for-shot in the
opening minutes, scoring 11
of his 23 points in the first
quarter. He started the game
with a pair of three-point
ers, added a three-point
play and a short jumper be
fore the buzzer which cut
Apalachee’s lead to 18-15.
Flahn and Metts both
cooled off in the second
quarter. Fortunately for
Apalachee, Hayes and Wal
lace picked up the slack,
combining for 18 points.
Unfortunately for Madison
County, no one matched
their effort on its side. The
Wildcats opened the quarter
with a 15-5 run and finished
with an 11-2 run to take a
44-24 lead into halftime.
“We turned the ball over a
little bit in the first quarter,”
Bird said. “But we started
doing a better job against the
press. But what happened, I
thought, is once we broke
the press, we kind of rushed
things in the half-court of
fensively.
“We took some shots that
were probably not great
shots to defend off of. Some
shots can lead to runouts by
the other team. I thought we
took some bad shots that
led to some easy baskets by
them. It got them going a lit
tle, got their confidence up.”
Madison County prevent
ed Apalachee from adding
to its lead in the second half
and even outscored them 35-
34. However, that’s a minor
footnote in a lopsided loss.
“They did a much better
job competing in the sec
ond half,” he said. “But you
can’t wait until the second
half to start doing that.”
STEPHENS COUNTY
PREVIEW
Stephens County is under
new leadership both on the
court and on the sideline.
New head coach Jeremy
Hughes takes over a team
which lost its biggest stars
to graduation and transfers.
The Indians do return three
solid contributors from last
year, but they don’t have
nearly as much height as
previous years.
“They’ve got a new coach
and they’re playing a little
bit different style than they
usually have,” Bird said.
“We want to be playing our
best in February and the
games now start affecting
what happens in February.
We’ve got to refocus and
understand we’ve played
some really close games and
come up on the short end of
a lot of them.
Stephens County won all
three meetings last season.
Only one was decided by
more than 10 points, and the
last meeting in the region
8-AAAA Tournament was
decided by three points (55-
52).
LOGANVILLE 56,
MADISON COUNTY 53
Madison County once
again came out on the
wrong side of a close game
Saturday at Loganville. The
Red Raiders have now lost
four games by six points of
less.
Madison County started
the game with a 9-2 lead and
that was the largest lead ei
ther team would have for the
rest of the game. The Red
Devils fought back to cut
the score to 11-8 at the end
of the first quarter and even
tually tied the game 11-11
early in the second quarter.
Madison County built
its lead back to 17-11 be
fore a 6-0 Loganville run
tied the game. The remain
ing minutes of the first half
featured three ties and four
lead chanced. Loganville
lead 27-26 at the break.
The lead went back-and-
forth through the second
half. Eventually. Madison
County trailed 54-53 with
seconds on the clock. Lo
ganville sunk a pair of free
throws to extend the lead
to 56-53 and the Red Raid
ers failed to tie the game to
force overtime.
Photo by Kyle Funderburk
Adam Metts leaps to defend the goal from an Apalachee
layup during Madison County’s loss Tuesday night.