Christian Heritage’s girls basketball team moved a step closer to another region championship on Thursday, and the Lady Lions did so in dominating fashion.
With an 89-30 win over the Heritage School in the semifinals of the Georgia Independent School Association Region 4-2A tournament at LaGrange Academy, the Lady Lions (20-5) secured their fifth consecutive appearance in the region title game. Christian Heritage, which will play Flint River Academy at 7 tonight with the championship on the line, is going for back-to-back region crowns and its third title in five seasons.
Heritage scored the opening points Thursday, but the Lady Lions took off on a 15-4 run and were up 33-8 after the first quarter.
“We just executed well and moved the ball well on offense,” Christian Heritage coach Heather Lowery said. “Also, we executed our fast break well. We got a lot of fast-break points.”
The Lady Lions led 54-24 at halftime and 77-26 entering the final period.
Ann Marie Massengale’s game-high 23 points led a quartet of Lady Lions who scored in double digits, and she also had five rebounds and four steals. Caroline Tarpley had 19 points and five assists, Maggie Peeples added 16 points and eight assists, and Rebecca Leonard chipped in 13 points and five assists.
Christian Heritage held Heritage to 33 and 29 points in regular-season matchups, and the defensive dominance continued in tourney play.
“We brought our press up and really put them under pressure immediately after they made the entry pass,” Lowery said. “We got a lot of turnovers.”
• Furtah Prep boys 70, Christian Heritage 42: In the GISA Region 4-2A tourney semifinals, the Lions (8-15) hung close with No. 1 seed Furtah (29-0) for much of the first half, trailing 14-9 after the first quarter.
But they went into halftime down 33-18 and dug a deeper hole in the third quarter, when they were outscored 30-10.
“(Furtah) just really ran it away with it the last few minutes of the first half,” Lions coach Chad Woodson said.
“In the third quarter they had lots of pressure, and we turned the ball over and they got lots of easy buckets.”
Michael McKinney led the Lions with 10 points, while Blake Carver and Andrew McEntyre each had eight points.
At 5:30 p.m. today, the Lions will face the loser of Thursday’s late boys semifinal between Heritage and LaGrange; that game is for third place in the region. Christian Heritage split the season series with Heritage and lost twice to LaGrange.
• Chattooga 54 girls, Coahulla Creek 46: Coahulla Creek (0-26) narrowly lost its first-ever postseason game, falling in the opening round of the Sub-region 7B-2A tournament at Dade County.
The Lady Colts led 8-7 after the first quarter, 25-19 at halftime and 35-30 entering the final period, but could not close it out.
“Our kids played outstanding defense the entire game,” Coahulla Creek coach David Friend said. “We got winded at the end, and they pulled away.”
Turnovers by the Lady Colts and second-chance points by Chattooga rallied the Lady Indians, Friend said.
“I think we just outrebounded them in the first half. We played outstanding defense and limited them to just one shot per possession,” he said. “In the second half, they had more inside play and had more offensive rebounds, and we started fouling them.”
Chattooga, which advances to face North Murray at 8:30 tonight in the second round, made 23 of 28 free throws compared to 15 of 23 for Coahulla Creek.
Macey Fossett had 12 points to lead the Lady Colts, while Hannah Locke scored nine.
• Calhoun boys 67, Coahulla Creek 33: Coahulla Creek’s first season ended in the opening round of the Sub-region 7B-2A tournament at Dade County.
Coahulla Creek (1-25) trailed 7-2 after the first quarter and stayed close with strong defense in the first half, but could not capitalize on the other end of the floor.
“We had one of those nights where we couldn’t do anything different on offense,” Colts coach Matthew Queener said. “We were getting wide-open shots, and it was like a lid was covering the basket.”
Calhoun widened its lead to 20-9 by halftime, then took control in the second half.
Hunter Williams led the Colts with 11 points, while Levi Wilson chipped in nine.
Soccer
• Northwest Whitfield’s boys and girls swept visiting Coahulla Creek in preseason scrimmages — the Bruins beat the Colts 5-0, while the Lady Bruins won 5-1.
For the Bruins, David Perez scored twice and Christian Perez, Jose Delcid and Jorge Solorzano each had one goal. Giovanni Aguero and Mario Perez each had one assist.
In the girls game, Andrea Garcia scored twice for the Lady Bruins and Jessica Romero, Paige Smyth and Juli Gomez each scored once. Northwest got out to a 2-0 lead before Coahulla Creek’s Regina Pacheco scored the Lady Colts’ lone goal.
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