Prep roundup: Double-booked for state

Published 11:39 pm Tuesday, February 10, 2015

For Northwest Whitfield High School’s boys basketball team, it’s all about high-powered offense. Northwest’s Lady Bruins find success with their trapping defense.

They might have different ways of winning, but neither squad felt disappointed after picking up wins Tuesday in the first round of the Region 7-4A tournament at Southeast Whitfield.

Both beat Ridgeland, with the boys winning 82-68 before the Lady Bruins won 62-37.

Northwest’s teams advanced to the eight-team tournaments’ semifinals and each locked themselves into top-four finishes that mean they will represent the region in the Class 4A state tournaments, which start next week.

The Lady Bruins, seeded second entering the Region 7-4A tournament, will play at 4 p.m. Friday against No. 3 seed Pickens, which defeated No. 6 seed Cartersville 48-42 on Tuesday. The Bruins, a No. 3 seed, follow at 5:30 p.m. Friday against No. 2 seed Cartersville after the Purple Hurricanes topped Pickens 60-29 on Tuesday.

The Lady Bruins improved to 21-6 this season and coach Greg Brown was pleased his team got past its first-round test while adding that Friday’s game is the most important of the year. The winner will advance to the title matchup, where the two finalists are guaranteed to host a first-round playoff game for state.

“Not to sound too arrogant, but making the state tournament is kind of our expectation for Northwest (girls basketball),” said Brown, whose team reached the second round state last year. “Now is when you can really get rewarded with a victory on Friday night, because if you win you know that you’ll host at least one game in the state.”

Northwest’s boys, who moved to 16-9 with the win, had four players reach double figures in scoring, led by Levi Mosteller’s 20 points. He was followed by Luke Shiflett (18), Jackson Carroll (14) and Cyrus Addison (11).

Northwest’s boys nailed nine 3-pointers in a game they led by as many as 20 points in the second quarter, only to see the Panthers (4-21) cut their lead to 58-53 entering the fourth quarter.

But the offense came back in the final period to help the Bruins pull away.

“We’ve got some kids that can shoot it and they came through at times,” Northwest coach Ryan Richards said. “It was a total team effort. We’ve been able to score and spread it around and we’ve kind of been that way all year.”

For the Lady Bruins, their dominance against Ridgeland was keyed by a 1-3-1 defense that limited region opponents to an average of 32 points per game during the regular season.

With post Mary Kate Allen’s length — the junior, also a volleyball standout, is close to 6 feet tall — heading the defense, Northwest forces opponents into traps as they cross half-court territory, which was the main reason the Lady Bruins jumped out to a 19-6 lead on Ridgeland (4-23) at the end of the first quarter, then expanded it to 34-18 by halftime.

“All year we’ve focused on our defense, and those will create our easy offense with layups,” Allen said. “We love playing defense and that’s where everything sort of starts for us.”

The Lady Bruins outscored Ridgeland 17-7 in the third quarter, which allowed them to coast into the semifinals.

“We try to get the game in our tempo and the other team out of theirs,” Brown said. “We want to try and speed up the game and create turnovers and it’s really what’s been our thing the past couple years.”

• Murray County girls 44, Adairsville 38: Murray County has struggled to close out would-be wins this season, but the Lady Indians (6-21) figured out how in their first game of the Region 6-3A tournament at Calhoun High School.

Do it again and they’ll be playing in the state tournament.

Ashlee Strong’s 22-point performance led the way — Alex Johnson chipped in eight points — but several players made key free throws late as Murray County survived “a game of runs,” said Dawn McClary, who is in her first season coaching the Lady Indians.

“They responded tonight,” McClary said of her players, who will be trying to win two games in a row for the first time this season when they face Sonoraville at 4 p.m. Thursday in the tournament quarterfinals.

The winner of that games reaches Friday’s semifinals and is guaranteed a top-four finish and a place in the Class 3A state tournament.

The Lady Indians beat Adairsville 44-40 on Jan. 6 in Chatsworth but lost 47-45 in double overtime to the Lady Tigers last week on the road. On Tuesday, Murray County trailed 8-6 after the first quarter, led 20-17 at halftime and was down 33-28 going into the fourth quarter.

McClary said she was proud of her team’s “court management” in the key game.

• Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe boys 56, Murray County 51: The Indians started slow and didn’t finish as well as they would have liked in their first game at the Region 6-3A tournament, and the second-round loss brought their season to an end.

Tucker Humble scored a team-high 21 points, Logan Bickford added eight points and Hunter Ary finished with seven points for Murray County (7-19), which trailed 11-6 after the first quarter but was tied at 23 at halftime and led 38-32 entering the final period.

“(LFO) went on a run and tied it up, and it was back and forth through the fourth,” Indians coach Greg Linder said. “They got up three on us late and we had to foul. We missed a 3 that would have tied it with about 14 seconds to go.”

The Indians then put the Warriors back on the free throw line, and this time LFO put the game away.

Linder said his team will miss the leadership of departing senior point guard Alex Hicks, but that the Indians should return an experienced group next season.

“Some of our guys who are juniors and will be seniors have played two years now,” Linder said. “We also played four sophomores this year … so we return a good bit and we’ve got a core group we’re excited about — but anytime you’ve got to replace your point guard it’s going to take some adjustments.”

LFO advances to the region quarterfinals and will play North Murray at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, with a state berth going to the winner of that game.

Soccer

• Southeast Whitfield girls 2, Coahulla Creek 0: In the season opener for both teams in Varnell, the Lady Raiders notched a pair of goals late in the first half and made the lead hold up.

The Raiders’ scoring came from freshmen Ester Paniaguia and Betsy Santos, while Alexandra Chavez was in goal for the shutout as Southeast won its first game under coach Todd Close.

• Murray County girls 11, Morris Innovative 1: A trio of Lady Indians registered hat tricks in a season-opening win at Harmon Field, with the game stopped with more than 33 minutes remaining in the second half because of the Georgia High School Association’s mercy rule.

Yesenia Castenda, Morgan Devitt and Vivian Gamboa each scored three goals for Murray County, which held a 7-0 lead at halftime, while Sandra Ramirez added the other two goals.

Marisol Barajas scored the lone goal for the Lady Tigers, who were also playing their first match of the season.

• Morris Innovative boys 4, Murray County 0: The Tigers got a goal and two assists from Elmer Hernandez while Fredy Perez scored a pair of goals as Morris Innovative picked up a home victory in the season opener for both teams.

Goalkeeper David Machuca recorded four saves to earn the shutout, while David Alonzo scored a goal and Mynor Bautista added an assist.

• Cass girls 4, Northwest 1: Despite outshooting Cass 18 to 11, the Lady Bruins only managed a second-half goal from Jenni Torres in their season opener in Cartersville.

 The Lady Bruins trailed 3-0 at the break, but coach Melissa Torbett praised her team’s second-half performance.

“We had a fairly poor first half, but played much better in the second half,” Torbett said.

• Northwest boys 3, Cass 2: Juan Torres scored a pair of goals, Enzo Lavecchia added another and Edward Infante had an assist to help lead the Bruins in their season opener in Cartersville.

Goalkeeper Edward Infante made only three saves, but the third came on a Cass penalty kick with 10 minutes remaining to preserve the one-goal lead.

Tennis

• Coahulla Creek girls 5, Sonoraville 0: The Lady Colts swept their season and Region 6-3A opener at home, getting singles wins from No. 1 Erin Orem, 6-0, 6-0, No. 2 Katelan Chasteen, 6-1, 6-3, and No. 3 Katherine Ann Sheppard, 6-0, 6-1, plus a doubles sweep from No. 1 Kennedy Chandler and Vanessa Suarez, 6-2, 6-3, and No. 2 Olivia Hughes and Madison Zerbe, 6-0 6-0.

• Coahulla Creek boys 3, Sonoraville 2: The Colts also won their season and Region 6-3A opener at home, hanging on for the team victory in cold and windy conditions thanks to singles wins from No. 1 Donovan Newby, 6-3, 2-6, 7-6 (10-8), and No. 3 Austin Lansing, 6-7 (3-7), 7-6 (7-3), 6-0, plus a doubles win from No. 1 Ryan Greene and Drew Satterfield, 6-2, 6-3.