Sonoraville splits with Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe
Lady Phoenix, Warriors win their penultimate regular-season games.
MBaron@CalhounTimes.com
In Tuesday night varsity action, the Sonoraville Lady Phoenix cruised to a dominant win over the Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe Lady Warriors while the Phoenix fell to .500 after a 60-45 loss to LFO.
Lady Phoenix dominate; secure second place for region tourney
After starting out early and often, the Sonoraville Lady Phoenix (18-6, 13-2 Region 6-AAA) cruised past the Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe Lady Warriors 8-16 (4-11 Region 6-AAA) 58-34.
“We shot it pretty well, especially in the first half,” Lady Phoenix head coach Stephanie Caudell said. “That always kind of relaxes everybody. I was just proud of some different players that don’t normally score for us being confident enough to step up and make some shots like Matti Parker, Brooke Jones. We may need that going forward so I was excited to see that.”
Juniors Matti Parker and Brooke Jones combined for 15 points. Parker recorded nine while Jones notched six.
Junior Alexa Geary and senior Maliyah Parks paced the Lady Phoenix, combining for 33 points. Geary scored all of her 17 points in the first half.
With Sonoraville leading by 31 after three quarters of play, the starters got a break in the fourth and everyone on the bench saw action.
“You’d love for them all to get a chance to play every game, but that doesn’t always happen,” Caudell said. “It’s good to be able to rest some players, for sure, but our main goal was try to be playing well at the end of the season.”
SONORAVILLE,
Sonoraville junior Murray Somers looks to pass against the Ringgold Tigers.
With Ringgold’s victory at Murray County Tuesday night, the Lady Tigers will be the No. 1 seed entering the region tournament at 14-2. Ringgold swept the regularseason meetings with Sonoraville.
At this point last year, the Lady Phoenix had just dropped a road region matchup with LakeviewFort Oglethorpe 47-46, their fifth region loss of the year.
“I was not feeling very well at all at this point last year, but we had two really good days of practice after that and played well to end the (regular) season on the road at North Murray,” Caudell said. “I think it was a wake-up call for us. Hopefully, we won’t need that this year.”
Sonoraville was the No. 4 team entering the region tournament, but ran the table last February en route to the 6-AAA title. Caudell said she’s more pleased with where the team is currently this year from last.
Friday night in senior night at The Furnace, and it will be recognition time for Coach Caudell’s lone senior on the roster, Maliyah Parks. Parks is Sonoraville’s alltime leading scorer and has over 1,000 rebounds in her storied varsity career.
“It’s sad for me just because Maliyah, she seems like she’s been here for longer than four years, which is a good thing,” Caudell said. “At the same time, it’s gone by fast. She means a lot to me and her family means a lot to me. It’ll be bittersweet. It’ll be happy because we’ll be celebrating what she’s accomplished, but it’ll be sad at the same time because she’s been such a big part of our program.”
Phoenix can’t solve Warriors
The Sonoraville Phoenix (11-11, 7-8 Region 6-AAA) are back at .500 overall after falling to the visiting Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe Warriors
(20-4, 12-3 Region 6-AAA).
“They made plays and made shots and made it tough for us on both ends of the floor,” Phoenix head coach Brent Mashburn said. “But for me, tonight, it was more about what we didn’t do. I don’t think we competed for 32 minutes. We didn’t play well, but as a coach, I think you can kind of live with that. I don’t think we competed the way we need to and the way we have most all year tonight.”
Sonoraville led the game 5-2 minutes into the opening quarter, but LFO responded with a 17-5 run to close the first eight minutes up 19-10.
The Phoenix rallied early in the second, cutting the Warrior advantage to just one possession at 21-18. However, LFO surged right back with a 13-3 streak before halftime.
LFO would dominate the third quarter 23-9, dousing any aspirations of a comeback.
“We missed some easy ones, but again, that’s all the more reason you better show up and compete every possession on both ends of the floor,” Mashburn said. “On nights when things aren’t coming easy when you’re not making a lot of shots, you’ve got to figure out how to make up for it and we could not do that tonight.”
Sonoraville’s leading scorers for the evening were Orry Darnell and Kevin Morrison with nine points apiece.
Mashburn said Morrison and freshman Brant Bryant, who saw time in the fourth quarter and record seven points, were bright spots.
“The sad part is, when you compete hard and play well and guys around you aren’t, you stand out,” Mashburn said. “I think that’s what we got to see a little bit of tonight. I thought LFO competing hard and playing hard and they stood out and we had a few guys that played hard and played well and I think they stood out.”
Up Next
After Friday’s senior night game versus North Murray, Sonoraville prepares for the Region 6-AAA tournament, which will be hosted by North Murray High School.
The Lady Phoenix secured the No. 2 seed in Region 6-AAA and will compete on Friday, Feb. 4, at 4 p.m. against an opponent to be determined.
The Phoenix will represent the No. 5 seed of Region 6 and will take the court on Tuesday, Feb. 4, at 8:30 p.m. They will play the winner of Haralson County (ninth seed) and Ringgold (eighth seed).