Area prep roundup: North Murray boys speed to victory

CHATSWORTH — North Murray picked up a Sub-region 7B-2A basketball sweep Friday night at home and prolonged new rival Coahulla Creek’s struggles in its first season.

The Mountaineers beat the Colts 77-34, while North Murray’s girls won 64-38.

The Colts (1-23, 1-12) tried to slow the tempo down early by holding the ball for nearly a minute in their offensive possessions. With the score at 6-2 in favor of North Murray halfway through the first quarter, the Mountaineers’ Zach Vess took control inside — with scoring and rebounds — to help the Mountaineers go on an 11-2 run and hold a 17-4 lead after one period.

The Mountaineers (18-6, 12-3) went into a full-court press at the beginning of the second quarter to speed up the game.

“Them stalling hurts our ability to get after the ball,” North Murray coach Eric Bishop said. “Once we got the game going faster, it was better and it keeps our guys awake. It keeps the blood flowing for us.”

Bishop said he talked to his team before the game about Coahulla Creek taking long possessions and slowing the pace.

“We figured it would be like that,” Bishop said. “We were hopeful that it wouldn’t be, but planned for it to be.”

Vess, who had eight points in the first quarter, finished with 15, along with eight rebounds. Cody Malone had a game-high 17 points, while Brady Swilling had 10 and Jacob Sexton added eight.

Coahulla Creek’s Hunter Williams and Taylor Poteet each had six points.

Earlier in the night, the Lady Mountaineers (13-11, 7-6) used a well-balanced offense and a slew of trips to the free throw line to down Coahulla Creek (0-24, 0-13).

Each of the 10 players listed on the Lady Mountaineers roster scored, and Erin Robinson had a game-high 18 points, while Megan Pittman added 12 points.

North Murray coach Keith Robinette praised his team’s aggressiveness and hustle even when the game was decided and there was little to play for.

“I like the way we’re getting after the ball,” Robinette said. “We had 46 seconds left, and there’s still girls diving on the floor for the ball. They’re finally starting to get it in regards to effort.”

The Lady Mountaineers coach is still looking for progress in some ways, but has already seen it in others.

“We had one little stretch there where I think we could’ve converted better inside,” he said. “Robinson really played well, though, and she has come along.”

Hannah Locke was a bright spot offensively for the Lady Colts, scoring 13 points and knocking down three 3-pointers. Erin Orem added nine points for Coahulla Creek, which has one junior on a roster otherwise made up of freshmen and sophomores.

The biggest statistical difference from the game other than the final score was the amount of free throws North Murray took. The Lady Mountaineers had 28 foul shots and made 16; the Lady Colts were 5-for-6 at the line.

• Northwest Whitfield girls 64, Cass 38: Marissa Fraire had 12 points, Carley Fetzer added 11 points and six rebounds, and the Lady Bruins (14-10, 7-6 Region 7-4A) cruised to a senior night victory in Tunnel Hill.

“We were in control the entire game,” Northwest coach Greg Brown said.

Halle Ford added five assists for the Lady Bruins, who led 28-12 at halftime.

In addition to Fraire and Fetzer, Northwest honored seniors Taylor Baker, Brianna Coppock and Reid Robertson.

• Northwest boys 67, Cass 59: O’Shea Hill scored almost half of his points in the game’s final minute, and they were big ones for Northwest (15-7, 7-5 Region 7-4A).

Hill, who finished with nine points, went 4-for-4 from the foul line to seal the region victory in Tunnel Hill, avenging a loss to the Colonels in Cartersville earlier this season.

“We really needed this win,” Bruins coach Ryan Richards said. “It’s too muddy right now to tell, but we’re hoping this keeps us in fourth or fifth place in the region. But we did what we had to do, and that’s take care of ourselves.”

The Bruins close the regular season with another Region 7-4A matchup today at Chattahoochee.

Tallon Trew had 18 points and seven rebounds for the Bruins, while Colter Creswell (10 points, nine rebounds), Daniel Kubin (10 points, five assists), Kaleb King (eight points) and Tyler Baker (seven points) also made key contributions.

Northwest led at the end of each of the first three quarters, but never by more than seven points.

The Bruins honored Trew, Creswell, Kubin, Baker, Jordan Woodard, Cliff Phillips and Alex Heard on Friday as part of senior night festivities.

• Christian Heritage girls 83, Dominion Christian 44: Caroline Tarpley had 27 points and seven rebounds as she led a group of four Lady Lions (19-5) who scored in double figures during the team’s regular-season finale, a non-region matchup in Marietta.

Ann Marie Massengale added 12 points and six rebounds, while Rebecca Leonard and Erin Harden each had 11 points. Leonard also had five steals and Harden had seven rebounds. Maggie Peeples led the team in assists, with eight, and scored six points.

Kelsey Mateo’s 18-point effort led Dominion Christian.

Christian Heritage, the No. 1 seed for the Georgia Independent School Association Region 4-2A tournament, will play in the tourney’s semifinals at 7 p.m. Thursday at LaGrange Academy. The Lady Lions will play the winner of LaGrange and Heritage, which play Tuesday.

• Cartersville girls 63, Murray County 56: Murray County led 19-13 at the end of one third quarter, but the host Lady Purple Hurricanes had tied the game at 32 by halftime and outscored their visitors 11-6 in the third quarter on their way to taking control and the Sub-region 7B-3A victory.

“We led the whole first half and were playing great, we just got in foul trouble,” Lady Indians coach Michael Hill said. “They got a few easy buckets there at the end, but other than that ...”

Kellie Newport had 16 points to lead Murray County (7-17, 2-7), while McKenzie Carroll added 11 and Caitlyn Sims chipped in eight.

• Cartersville boys 71, Murray County 52: Trailing 31-24 at the half, things got even tougher for the Indians in the third quarter, where they were outscored 24-13.

“Those two middle quarters were the issue,” Murray County coach Greg Linder said. “We started the second half bad — we couldn’t get it down the floor. We had too many turnovers, and we’ve got to eliminate those mistakes. They went on a pretty good run and we never could quite recover.”

Brady Todd led the Indians (9-15, 1-8 Sub-region 7B-3A) with 18 points, while Jacob Sturgill and Jake Ice each chipped in 10. Matt Corbin pulled down 12 rebounds.

• Dominion Christian boys 51, Christian Heritage 45: Michael McKinney had 17 points and Blake Carver added 12 for the Lions (7-14), who dropped their regular-season finale, a non-region matchup, on the road.

Christian Heritage plays in the opening round of the GISA Region 4-2A tournament Tuesday at LaGrange Academy.

Wrestling

• Eleven local athletes will wrestle in the semifinals today at the Area 7-3A traditional tournament at Allatoona, with Southeast Whitfield advancing five wrestlers to the round.

The Raiders’ Omar Ruiz (106 pounds), Lester Paucay (138), Austin Allen (160), Edgar Federico (170) and Carlos Fraire (220) all are a match shy of the finals and helped Southeast hold fifth place when wrestling ended Friday after two championship rounds. Gilmer, Heritage, Allatoona and LaFayette are ahead of the Raiders.

Ruiz, Paucay, Federico and Fraire were all top-four seeds for the tourney, but Allen, a No. 5 seed, upset fourth-seeded Simon Stedman of Ringgold to reach the semis.

Dalton’s Dylan Carlile (120), Reinaldo Torres (145), Sidney Wheeler (182) and Larry Fernandez (220) also advanced to the semifinals, as did Murray County’s John Duarte (126) and Blade LeQuire (285).

Because no consolation bracket matches were wrestled Friday, no one has been eliminated from the tournament, which will resume at 9 a.m. today. Following two rounds of wrestlebacks, the championship semis are set for 11 a.m., with the finals expected at 2 p.m.

• Northwest ended the first day of the Area 7-4A traditional tournament at Cass in solid shape, with nine Bruins still in competition after two rounds in the championship brackets and two rounds of wrestlebacks.

Dustin Pendergrass (145), Brandon Davenport (160), Brian Whitmire (182) and Adam Selby (285) each won two matches to advance to the championship semifinals, while Blake Hayes (113), Alex Reynolds (132), Sean Coley (138), Jared Haws (170) and Francisco Ramirez (195) are in the consolation brackets.

Northwest was in seventh place in the standings at the 11-team event, but “not very far out of fifth,” Bruins coach Allen Tucker said.

Wrestling begins at 10 a.m. today with both wrestlebacks and the semifinals, and the finals and consolation finals are expected to begin shortly after noon, Tucker said.

• Coahulla Creek and North Murray did not report results from the first day of the Area 7-2A traditional tournament at Rockmart by The Daily Citizen’s deadline. That tourney resumes at 10 a.m. today.

JV basketball

• Northwest girls 44, Cass 14: Kerrigan King led with 12 points, Karli Williams added 10 and Sara Richards and Macy Weeks each had eight as the Lady Bruins — who led 24-6 at halftime — rolled to their 17th victory in as many games this season.

• Christian Heritage boys 58, Dominion Christian 43: Andrew McEntyre had 24 points and 17 rebounds to lead the Lions (9-6) as they wrapped up their season. Bryce Delozier added 12 points and Evan Townsend had 12 rebounds.

• Coahulla Creek girls 42, North Murray 31: Ashley Cochran had 16 points and Macey Fossett added 12 for the Lady Colts (9-8), who led 19-9 at halftime on the way to closing out the schedule with a victory.

“I’m proud of our JV kids for finishing their first season with a winning record,” Lady Colts coach David Friend said.

Christian Heritage School Lions

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