Warriors roll at both ends for 2-0 start
The Gordon Central High School boys basketball team is off to an amazing start.
They went into their own Ray Tucker Classic tournament on Monday hoping to remain undefeated after they rolled over Dalton Academy and then Oakwood Christian Thursday to stand 2-0 on the year.
The Tucker Classic had eight teams playing games on Monday and Tuesday at Gordon Central HS. Besides the Warriors, Providence Christian Academy, North Murray, Adairsville, Wesleyan, Kings Academy, Oconee County, and Excel Christian rounded out the teams’ in the field.
The Warriors played Kings Academy on Monday before finishing the Ray Tucker Classic Thanksgiving Tournament Tuesday against Providence Christian Academy. (Details of those games were not available at press time).
King’s Academy also got off to a 2-0 start with a pair of victories on the road last week. The Knights tipped off the year with a 64-62 win over Shiloh Hills Christian in Kennesaw and last Friday, they edged Pinecrest Academy 52-45, in Cumming. So the Knights were just like the Warriors going into tournament play Monday as they too were looking for a pair of wins to stand 4-0 and unbeaten on Thanksgiving Day.
“I think it’s going to be a tough tournament,” Greer said of the Ray Tucker competition. “I think there are eight very good teams, but we just want to come out and play well Monday and then come back and play better on Tuesday. But I think it’s going to be a very competitive tournament for all the teams and we want to build on what we’ve done so far.”
What they have done so far going into this week is first whip Dalton Academy, 83-22, before they took down Oakwood Christian, 89-46, at home last Thursday. All 15 players in the scorebook have already put points on the board and 12 different players scored points against OC with eight different guys having five or more.
“I feel like with the depth we have, we’re not going to have to depend on just one or two guys to score,” Greer said. “We’ve got a lot of guys that can fill it up and I think that is going to give us a chance to be competitive every night because if one or two guys aren’t on, we have other guys that will be on, so I think our depth is definitely an asset.”
He said he was hopeful they would get off to a great start, but didn’t see two blowouts coming
because that’s not something a coach predicts.
“The guys have just played their tails off these first two games,” Greer said. “They’ve defended. They’ve rebounded. They’ve made shots. They’ve taken care of the basketball. They’ve just played well in every area really.
“My goal was for us to get off to a good start and we have, but I’m not going to lie, I didn’t see us scoring like we have. I mean I felt good about what I thought we could do offensively, but I didn’t see us scoring over 80 points in each game. I mean it’s still early and we’ve still got a lot of work to do and a lot of areas we’ve got to continue to clean up and get better in, but this first week of the season, you really couldn’t ask for a better start.”
Against Oakwood, it looked like they might hit the century mark as they put 50 on the board in the first half. But, for the second time in three nights, he played the reserves pretty much the entire
second half and they came up just a point shy of 90.
They had eight different players score in the first quarter alone, scoring 27 points and they added 23 more in the second to lead 5021 at halftime.
The Warriors notched 26 points in the third to take a nearly 40-point lead into the fourth period.
Senior guard Mac McDaniel led the winners with 17 points, hitting five 3-point shots. For the night, Gordon Central made 34 baskets and five treys with McDaniel making all five of them.
Junior Logan Curtis also had 13 points for the Warriors and senior guard Blake Broome came off the bench to throw in 10. Point guard Marquavious Yopp also had a big night off the bench, coming in to add nine more.
Greer said his guys have been in attack mode and that has been great to see.
“I think we’re hungry and I think we’ve had different guys doing different things these first two
games and it’s made a big difference,” Greer said. “The guys don’t care who gets the credit. The guys don’t care who gets the points. The guys just want to win and I know if we can just continue to do what we’ve been doing and
play like we’ve been playing, that unselfishness will be a big part of what we’re doing.”
The Warriors return to the court after the holiday next Tuesday night when they are at Mt. Zion for a 7:30 p.m. tipoff.