Phoenix remain second in Region 7-4A
♦ Big Red looking for first-round bye in 4A after being in 3A play-in tournament game last year
What a difference a year makes.
Last season, when the Region 6-3A postseason basketball tournament began, the Sonoraville basketball squad played in the first game of the entire week in a play-in game between the eighth and ninth-place teams in that nine-team division.
Next week, now as members of the smaller six-team but with larger schools Region 7-4A, it looks like the Phoenix will have a first-round bye in the current division tournament when it begins at Central High School.
Sonoraville, with a pair of Region victories last week, began this week at 6-3 in the league, a full two-games behind Central, which was 8-1 and has clinched the top seed and a bye to start next week’s event to determine seeding for the upcoming GHSA state 4A playoffs.
The Phoenix were trying to make second place official Tuesday night when they had their regular season finale against Heritage. (Details of that game were not available at press time). The Generals helped Sonoraville out last Friday night with a 62-61 overtime victory over Southeast Whitfield, dropping the Raiders to third place and a game behind the Phoenix.
Mainly though, the Big Red helped themselves out last week with two wins, giving them wins in their last seven league games heading into the last contest of the year. They began it with a 60-43 victory over still-winless Cedartown last Tuesday night before holding off a late comeback by Northwest Whitfield Friday for a big 72-65 victory over the Bruins at The Furnace.
The loss dropped Northwest to 4-5 in the Region and into a tie with Heritage for fourth place as those clubs entered the final night of the season.
In that win over Northwest at a packed Sonoraville gym, the Phoenix raced out to a 21-point halftime lead with a 41-point first half before the visitors starting whittling away and got it down to three in the final two minutes.
The Bruins scored the first basket of the game, but Sonoraville was off-andrunning with nine straight for a fast 9-2 advantage and the Phoenix would never trail the rest of the night. A pair of 3-point shots from senior forward Ethan Hibberts and another one from junior guard Jordan Storey capped off the early run.
But the visitors answered with a 12-5 scoring run of its own, closing Sonoraville’s lead to 14-12 with a minute remaining.
With six seconds left, Hibberts hit another one from long range and the Phoenix led 17-12 to close the first period.
They turned it into a romp in the second quarter, outscoring the Bruins 27-8 for
a big cushion at the break.
The basket that ended the first period sparked an 11-0 run that stretched well into the second with their first 10-point lead coming at 22-12. That was followed by a Donovan McDaniel trey for a 25-12 advantage.
A Northwest Whitfield bucket interrupted the run and made it 25-14, but the Phoenix would score the next 13 consecutive points to complete the 23-3 scoring spree for a 37-14 lead before the visitors made a foul shot.
A Jaxon Pate three-pointer gave them Sonoraville its biggest lead of the game at 40-15 with just over a minute showing until halftime. NW finished with a
5-1 run of its own but the Phoenix were still in good shape with a 41-20 lead at the half.
In the second half, Northwest Whitfield went into a full-court press and that forced numerous turnovers, allowing the Bruins to make their way back into the game.
Sonoraville was up, 4224 three minutes into the third when the Bears went on an 8-2 run to get it to 44-32 deficit with over two minutes left.
An Elijah Woods’ threepointer with just under 20 seconds left put them ahead 51-36 to start the fourth quarter.
Another three made it 5436 and the lead was still 15 at 59-44 on a Sonoraville
layuup with just over five minutes to play.
However, the Bruins, thanks to a couple of three’s, put together an 11-2 run from there with and with 2:30 on the clock, Sonoraville’s lead was just 61-55. The teams traded the next four baskets before a Northwest Whitfield 3-pointer made it 6562 with 77 seconds to go.
But Pate hit a three at the other end with under a minute to play and the lead went back to six at 68-62. Jordan Storey’s two foul shots 20 seconds later made it 70-62 and Storey
would finish the scoring with two more free throws.
McDaniel paced Sonoraville with 20 points and Storey had 14 more while senior Brant Bryant had nine points, Woods had eight and Bryson Shellnutt and Pate notched six points apiece.
The Phoenix, led by head coach Brent Mashburn, now stand 17-7 on the year and with more one victory, will have 18 or three times as many as last year when they won just six games.
What a difference a year makes.