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Panthers take third place in Bear Brawl '94
By PHIL CLARK
The Perry Panthers rebounded
from a disappointing loss to Warner
Robins in the semi-final game, and
blasted Wilkinson County in the
game for third place in the Brawl
'94 last week at Houston County
High. Coach Carl Thomas said "I'm
proud of the way we came back and
played with that much intensity
after the lost to Warner Robins. But
I wanted to win the tournament. So
did my boys.”
In the Panthers opening game on
Wednesday against Dublin, both
teams started very slowly, and a tip
in by Gene Arnold with thirty
seconds left in the the first quarter
gave the Panthers an 11-11 tie after
on quarter. But a big second quarter
put Perry in control of the game
and they handled the Irish with little
trouble. Rod Barnes scored twenty
points to lead the Panthers, who
got 15 from Stan Gann tuid ten
from Carriet Curry. Ryan Taylor
and Markeith Mitchell were
Dublin's only scoring threats and
the Panthers defense effectively
handled them, with Taylor scoring
17 and Mitchell 14
DEMONS 78 - PERRY 77
It was the game of the
tournament for sure. The Thursday
night semi final between Perry and
Warner Robins was filled with
intensity, pressure defense and a
parade to the foul line. In all, the
teams shot 68 free throws,
including 29 in the fourth quarter as
the teams battled point for point
down the stretch.
Warner Robins took a first
quarter lead 22-19 but Perry rallied
in the second to take a five point
lead. 35-28 with 2:54 left in the
half. With the Panthers trailing by
three. Rod Barnes had a three point
play to tie the score, then a steal
and three point basket by DeJuan
Lewis gave Perry a 31-28 lead.
After Warner Robins called time,
Cory Duncan scored to in;tke it 33-
28 But ;m 11-5 Warner Robins
* run gave the Demons the lead rack
at halftime 39-38
By midway through the third
quarter, Warner Robins had
stretched the lead to eleven using a
12-2 run to open the quarter A
Stan Gann basket at the four
minute mark propelled the Panthers
to a 9-2 run of their own to cut the
lead to three at the end of three
quarters. 58-55.
Then came that lurious fourth
quarter in which Perry scrapped and
scnunbled trying to catch up and the
Demons held on desperately to the
lead. Garnet Curry got a basket for
Perry with 4:40 left to narrow die
Warner Robins lead to one point at
66-65 Later in the quarter, Warner
Robins converted a turnover into a
76=73 lead and Damon Reeves
converted two free throws to make
it 78-73 But Curry hit a basket to
make it 78-75 With Stan Gann
gone with five fouls, Perrys
scrappy defense got a turnover and
Rod Banies was fouled as he drove
to the basket. His two free throws
made it 78-77 with :46 left. A
Perry foul sent the Demons to the
line with :15 left, but they missed,
and got the rebound. Another Perry
foul pul them back on the line.
This time, the miss was rebounded
by Perry with nine seconds left and
a desperation shot by Derrick Webb
couldn't find the basket as Warner
Robins held on for the win.
Curry's 31 points was a game
high, with Barnes hitting 17.
Reeves scored 22 and .Punel Forbes
21 for the Demons, who would lose
the championship game the
following night to Washington
County.
In the third place game against
Wilkinson County, Perry beciune
the only team in the tournament to
hit the hundred mark, with Stan
Gann’s 32nd point on the giune on
a tip in allowing the Piuithers to hit
the century mark. In all, six
Panthers scored in double figures,
with five Wilco players also hitting
double digits in the high scoring
affair, won by the Piuithers 100-87.
Curry had 15 on the way to being
named to the all-tournament first
team. Gann's 32 led all scorers.
Kiwaukee Thomas, in his best
giune of the year, scored a hustling
12 points. Thomas got the start at a
forward position.
Gann was named to the all
tournament second learn. George
Askew of Washington County was
the tournaments MVP. Both
runners-up in rfie inaugural Bear
Brawl last year won the
championship this year.
The Perry teams return to regular
season play Saturday night at
Macon County.
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Shon Taylor (15) watches as All Tournament senior Captain Garriet Curry (25) receives the trophy
from Cliff Hutto, coach at Houston County High School and host for the annual Bear Brawl. The
Panthers finished third in the tournament.
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Members of the Lady Panther team pause for a photo after picking up third place in the annual Bear
Brawl at Houston County High School last week. The Lady Panthers are coached by Max Vickers
(right).
Lady Panthers take third pace at tourney
At the beginning ol the year, il
you'd told Max Vickers that his
Lady Panthers would be 6-1 going
into January, with a third place
finish in the Be;ir Brawl, he'd have
been elated. But that’s the story as
Perry won two ol three in the Brawl
including the third place trophy
with a Friday night win over
Houston County.
The Lady Panthers opened the
tournament Wednesday with a 51-
45 over previously unbeaten
Dublin, perry wasted little time
breaking on top as Shanetia
Gilbert's basket just 19 seconds
into the game gave the Lady
Panthers the lead. But the first
quarter then turned into a slow, low
scoring affair as Dublin took the
lead alter one quarter 7-5.
In the second quarter, though,
Perry took control of the game as
Monique Kendrick ;uid Jada Releford
combined for 19 points as Perry
went to the dressing room with a
26-17 halftime lead. After the teams
swapped baskets in the third quarter,
with Perry leading by ten alter three
quarters, Dublin mounted a
comeback in the fourth and closed
to within five at 40-35 before a
Perry timeout with five and a half
minutes left. With 2:25 left in the
game, Gilbert hit the only three=-
pointer of the game to give the
Lady Panthers an eight point
advantage at 49-41. The 51-45 final
improved Perry to 5-0 and dropped
Dublin to 3-1
LADY DEMONS 65 -
LADY PANTHERS 56
Lady Hornets settle for seventh place
during Tattnall Holiday Tourney
By PHIL CLARK
Cinderella lost her slipper lor a
while in the Tattnall Holiday
tournament as Billy Sellers’ young
and surprising Westfield Lady
Hornets hit a storing dry spell in
the second hall and dropped an
opening round game to Dublin's
V
Houston Times -Journol
Perry suffered its first loss ol the
season on Thursday night as they
dropped a 65-56 decision to
eventual toummnent winner W;imcr
Robins in a game decided in the
third quarter. Perry had all sorts of
trouble with Diana Lott in the first
half as the 6-2 post player scored 19
ot her game high 25 points. Still
Perry trailed by just two points at
halftime 33-31. Warner Robins
jumped ahead 6-2 before a Perry’
timeout, and held the lead
throughout the quarter, and actually
led by five before Gilbert hit a
buzzer-beater to cut the first quarter
lead to 18-15.
The Lady Panthers tied the g;une
at 22-all as Natalie Taylor scored
off an assist from- freshman
Sheniquia Howard as Perry beat the
Warner Robins press for the easy
basket. Then Perry took its first
lead as Amber Fendley got the ball
to Yotasha Davis under the basket
for a 24-22 Perry lead. Olethia
White hit two free throws with
1:53 left in the quarter to tie the
game at 29-all and Diana Lott
quickly put the Lady Demons back
on top with a basket at the 1:30
mark. With a minute and four
seconds left in the half, Perry went
to the bonus line for the first time
in the gtune By this time, Warner
Robins has shot 16 free throws!
Fendley’s one-in-one tied the game
before Lott gave Warner Robins a
33-31 lead at the half. The teams
matched points from the floor, but
Warner Robins' 7-16 from the foul
line gave them the advantage. Perry
Trinity Christian at Tattnall's old
gym Tuesday, 62-27. The Lady
Hornets, training 44-23 at the hall,
could score just lour second hall
points on the way to a 62-27 loss,
just the second of the year lor
Westfield. The loss dropped the
Lady Hornets out of contention for
Wednesday Jan. 4,1995
was 5 of 6 in the first half.
The third quarter was the
difference in the game as Warner
Robins’ pressure defease finally got
to the inexperienced Lady Panthers
and Warner Robins moved out to a
54-39 lead after three with a 21-8
third qmirter advantage. But the
Lady Panthers weren't finished.
They battled back in the fourth to
cut six points off the lead, scoring
17 in the last period. Coach Max
Vickers said 'lt's good we played
them. We needed tt> play a A AAA
le;un to see just how well we can
stack up. They didn't disappoint
me.”
Lott who would become the
tournament MVP, had a game high
25 points for Warner Robins while
Perry's balanced attack had 13 from
Fendley and Gilbert and a dozen
from Releford. Taylor had eight.
Perry bounced back for tin easy
54 32 win over Houston County in
the battle for third place, winning
the trophy while giving every
player a chance to get some playing
time. Twenty four points in the
first quarter just about did the Lady
Bears in as Shanetia Gilbert had 10
and Monique Kendrick eight in the
qu.irter. Kendrick finished the game
with 13, Gilbert with 12 while
seven other Lady Panthers got into
the scoring column. Misty
Mulliken had a teiun high 12 for
Houston County as die Lady Bears
dropped to 1 -9 under first year coach
Casey Jones, the long-time
Stratford coach who will be an asset
to die Houston County prognun.
the chiunpionship at Tattnall, where
they had won the four-team pre
season tourmunenl.
Trinity's Laura Haskins scored
25 points for g;une honors while
Jennifer Smith managed ten for
Westfield.
Holiday highlights: A
look ahead to 1995
6A
By PHIL CLARK
Holiday basketball tournaments
are great for morale, if you win, and
they are great for sharpening up
skills dulled by participation in
football in the case of boys teams.
But they sure do make it hard lor
reporters, who have to try to cover
so many events at the same time.
But holiday tournaments also
produce some outstanding
individual performances, as a rule.
The Tattnall Holiday tournament
and the Brawl '94 did just that for
some local youngsters, .hike Walls
of Westfield, for example, had two
games in the Tattnall tournament in
which he scored 32 points. Thirty -
and-over games were also turned in
by Westfield's Brian Nash, and
Perry's Garriet Curry and Stan
Gann. Curry had 31 in the semi
final loss to Winner Robins, while
Gann had 32 in the third-place win
over Wilkinson County in which
Perry beciune the only team in the
tournament to reach 1(X) points in a
giune.
The holidays are over It's down
to serious business now. And the
only serious business is not
basketball. There has to be a
solution to the strike in major
league baseball. Gazing into the
crystal ball for 1995. I see that end.
It just doesn't make sense, from
either standpoint, to continue the
strike into the '95 season. Too
many people stand to lose too
much Saner minds must prevail
1995 will see the end of the
George Foreman boxing career,
again! Foreman has a scheduled
bout in April He'll be 46 when he
fights, and the knit he's taken home
in the last couple of years should be
plenty. No need to fight anymore.
Fact is, it wasn’t for the money,
anyhow. Ego.
Super Bowl-29 is scheduled for
Joe Robbie Stadium January 29th.
in Miami. But they'll play it
without the Dolphins. The NFC
again appears to have the edge, with
San Francisco and Dallas, among
others. Don’t count out the AFC
this ye:ir. though. They will have a
Hp ; 1 f
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Westfield Coach Jim Massey looks for help during a game last
week at the Tattnall Holiday Tournament.
Hornets claim tourney
title with 81-80 win
Bv PHIL CLARK
When Westfield coach Jiin
Massey yelled "great game boss"
following the Hornets pulsating 81-
80 win over Monroe for the
Tattnall Holiday tournament title,
he was talking to Gerry Kosater,
the Monroe coach. He could just
have easily said grat game HOSS!"
Then he would have been talking to
his versatile post player-point
gu;ird-shooting guard Jake Walls,
who knocked in 32 points for the
second time in the tounuunent and
led a well-b;ilanced Hornet te;un to
the tournament victory.
To be sure, this giune, and this
tournament, was a team effort.
Massey used his players well, kept
them rested, and in the long run,
that was perhaps the key to the
tournament victory. As Massey
would tell a reporter alter die final
game, "our kids played their tails
off. It was tremendous just to sit
there and watch il." That statement
could be a little misleading. Massey
never sits and watches! Never sits,
period! But die rest of the statement
is accurate... They did, indeed, play
their tails off.
K Sports
writer |
new representative, since Buffalo
did not qualify. Wouldn't a super
bowl be nice for Fort Valley's Greg
Lloyd, a Pittsburgh linebacker out
of Peach County High School and
Fort Valley State? Don't write off
the possibility.
Will an American win the
Masters this year? The handful of
foreign players who qualify are
among the best players in the
world, so Americans have an ever
increasing hard time winning at
Augusta. Some Americans I think
might have a change this year
include Paul Azinger, Fred
Couples, Phil Mickelson and a
handful of others. But my
prediction as this years winner,
South African Ernie Els.
Filling the vacant Athletic
Director and head football coaching
job at Perry High School is a top
priority. I have not talked with Phil
Smith over the holidays, but I have
talked with several fans. I can't say
if official applications have been
received, but I can say that I have
heard several luunes pop up among
supporters of the prognun. Nothing
is official, mind you, just what fans
are saying. Niunes I've heard include
George Collins, former Warner
Robins, University of Georgia and
professional player now at
Tennessee Chattanooga; Perry
assistants Tony Thrift and Luke
Smith; former Peach County coach
Neal Rumble, now at Thomasville;
Milchell-Baker's Jack Johnson and
Macon County's C B Cornett
Again, this is fan talk, not official
talk. That will have to come from
school officials on the local and
county level.
The championship game began
is if it would be a Monroe blowout.
In a furious first quarter, the teams
combined for 55 poinLs, with the
Mustangs leading 30-25 at the
break. The pace slowed somewhat
in the second quarter, but the
Mustangs continued to use their
height advantage to control the
backboards and the game, leading
by thirteen at the half, 46-33.
But the Hornets speed and
superior numbers began to take its
toll in the third as they quickly cut
the lead to seven, scoring the first
six points of the quarter. By the
time Greg Adams hit a basket with
under two minutes left in the
quarter to give the Hornets their
first lead, Westfield had taken the
momentum away from the
Mustangs.
Walls, who said his coach had
told the team to come out and play
with pride, was a key down the
stretch, but he wasn't alone. Walls
hit four free throws to give the
Hornets a one-point lead with just
over a minute to play, but the
Mustangs answers as Eric Bunn hit
(See HORNETS, page 7A)