Visiting Raiders take all they want from Dalton Middle

Published 11:34 pm Thursday, December 20, 2007

Cleveland Middle School’s basketball teams made themselves at home in Dalton’s gym on Thursday.

The Tennessee school swept all four games at Dalton, but a 58-55 victory over the previously unbeaten eighth grade boys team came much harder than the others.

Dalton trailed by six points with 50 seconds to play, but got a putback basket and two free throws from Tre Beck — who finished with a game-high 24 points — and had one last shot after Cleveland missed the front end of a one-and-one with eight seconds to play.

A 3-point attempt by the Cougars (9-1) bounced off the front of the rim, though, and the visiting Raiders (10-2) wrapped up a big day in Dalton.

“We look for competition, for this type of situation,” said Cleveland coach Randy Evans. “Dalton’s a great team. My hat’s off to them for sure.”

It was an especially disappointing loss for a Dalton lineup that had never lost a middle school game. The Cougars won last year’s North Georgia Middle School Athletic League title after a perfect regular season and had maintained a polished mark while playing a patchwork schedule this year.

Without a league for 2007-08 due to Whitfield County Schools forming their own in the spring — and no postseason tournament to look forward to — the Cougars have counted on big games as their top tests. The tightly-waged competition against Cleveland left no doubt this one qualified as such.

“Our goal was obviously to go undefeated,” said Dalton coach Jerry McAfee. “Of course, that’s not going to be a reality now. But these kids are going to realize, playing the competition we are now is going to make them better than what they were playing in the league last year. There’s no way we’d have faced anything like this last year. They were upset, but it’s going to make them better in the long run.”

The Cougars did anything but go quietly, despite falling behind by nine points near the end of the first quarter. They dug out of that hole and were down by just two early in the second quarter, though the Raiders kept stretching their legs and pushed the lead to 10 twice in the third.

Dalton trailed by 12 points with 5:49 to play in the game, but carved that deficit to a possession with an 11-2 run, a three-minute stretch in which five different players contributed points.

Cleveland struck back, though, and built its lead to seven points with 1:35 to play on a 3-pointer by Jamal Calvin, who led his team with 16 points not too long after scoring 19 in the seventh grade game.

“It was huge,” Evans said of the 3-pointer. “Just about the nail in the coffin. Not only did it put us up by three more points, but it was a confidence builder, a security blanket.”

Cody Lowe added 14 points for Cleveland, while James Wooden had 13 and Chad Voytek nine.

Throughout the game, the Raiders had little trouble finding open lanes to cut to the basket for quick, easy layups. Dalton’s struggle to adjust to that attack disappointed McAfee, but the Cougars kept the lead in sight at all times, picking up several points on second shots and gaining a little bit of ground at the foul line.

Evans was happy with how his team handled the mental pressure that came with Dalton’s rallies.

“We preach, ‘Weather the storm,’” he said. “We only play good teams, so we know they’re going to make runs and we’ve got to weather the storm … we’ve got to relax and know that our time is coming.”

McAfee saluted his players’ approach in the game’s final minutes, when smart basketball became especially essential with no wiggle room if they were to have a chance at completing the comeback. But he was frustrated by a slow start triggered by less than stellar full-court defense.

“It could have gone either way there at the end,” he said. “But we got behind by too much early. And we’ve been struggling with that. We’ve been getting behind almost everybody we’ve played, basically, lately. It caught up with us tonight.”

Julio Ringham added nine points for Dalton, while Shaqaue Robinson finished with eight.

— North Whitfield 74, Gladden 4: Alex Heard poured in 22 points, Nick Marcadis added 20, Colter Creswell 17 and Tallon Trew 11 for the Pioneers (8-0).

— Valley Point 28, Westside 26: Carter Gillean had 11 points while Matt Cobb finished with seven for the Green Waves (5-2).

n New Hope 46, Eastbrook 28: Jacob Vickery pumped in a game-high 21 points and Jordan Woodard finished with 12 as the Kodiaks improved to 3-4 on the season.

Coty Burch and David Rayburn each had eight points for the Mustangs.

8th grade girls

— Westside 46, Valley Point 10: The Lady Rockets remained unbeaten with the runaway victory, powered by Taylor Baker’s game-high 17 points. Carley Fetzer added 12 points for Westside (9-0).

Bretlin McFarland paced the Lady Green Waves with four points.

— Gladden 39, North Whitfield 36: Katie Quast had 13 points while Lindsey Gribble added nine and Shana Cone eight for the Lady Warriors (3-6).

Elizabeth Gregory paced the Lady Pioneers (4-3) with 16 points. Kelsey Holt added 11 and Kateleen Whaley nine.

— Cleveland 53, Dalton 27: Annie Kate Snyder led all scorers with 18 points to pace the Lady Cougars (2-7), who also got four from Chandler McKinney.

Yowansky MacLain led Cleveland (12-2) with 17, Emily McCracken added nine, Caroline Smith and Shantaqua Upton each finished with seven and Jordan Caplon had six.

7th grade boys

— New Hope 48, Eastbrook 19: The Kodiaks ran their record to 9-0 behind Tanner Quarles’ 11 points and 10 by Kaleb King.

Josue Quintero led the Mustangs with 13 points.

n Valley Point 33, Westside 25: Blake Young and Demond Rucker each scored 11 points for the Green Waves (1-6). Brandon Dale scored six points and Dylan Groves added five for the Rockets (1-6).

— Gladden 55, North Whitfield 33: Dylan Cantrell had 13 points and Daniel Oliver contributed 11 for the Warriors.

Blake Heard paced the Pioneers (3-4) with 11 points and Jonathan Crowder tossed in seven.

— Cleveland 50, Dalton 28: Jackson Dinges scored eight points and Will Erwin and Robert Enck each added five for Dalton (6-3).

Jamal Calvin scored a game-high 19 points to lead Cleveland (13-0), which also got eight points from Jamal Johnson and six each from Dustin Little and Matthew Whitmire.

7th grade girls

— Westside 25, Valley Point 20: Karlie Henson scored nine points and Allie Blackwood added six for the Lady Rockets (4-4).

— Cleveland 50, Dalton 15: Mollie Snyder and Carson Hagin each scored four points as the Lady Cougars fell to 5-4.

Brooke Copeland scored a game-high 12 points and Qetuwrah Abdullah-Muhammad added 10 for Cleveland (12-0).



Varsity basketball

— Christian Heritage girls 65, Sunbright 43: The Lady Lions continued their winning ways with the easy win over Sunbright, an Upper East Tennessee school, in the first Christian Heritage Christmas Tournament.

Maggie Peeples paced the Lady Lions (9-0) with 17 points and five assists while Elizabeth Henderson added 14 points. Savana Southerland had 13 points and five assists and Katie Nagel contributed 10 points and six rebounds.

Sunbright’s Tessa Kilby scored a game-high 18 points.

The Lady Lions play Colonial Hills Christian School from Lithonia in the championship game at 1 p.m. today.

— Christian Heritage boys 68, Sunbright 64 (OT): Damien Chaney and Landon McClure each scored 19 points — with McClure sinking five 3-pointers — to push the Lions (4-5) into their home tournament’s championship game.

Randy Sexton led Sunbright with 26 points and Shane Kreis added 20.

Christian Heritage faces World Changers Academy in the title matchup at 2:30 p.m. today.