Sonoraville opens 7-4A play with an easy victory

The Sonoraville High School basketball team grabbed an early share of first place in Region 7-4A Friday night with an easy 84-33 victory over Southeast Whitfield County in both teams’ league opener at The Furnace.

The Phoenix, who collected their fifth win in their last six games, broke the game open by outscoring the Raiders 30-4 in the second period to grab a 5319 halftime advantage and would cruise from there.

The win put them 1-0 in the league along with Central and Northwest Whitfield after the first night of 7-4A play with Central defeating Heritage, 54-39, and Northwest Whitfield beating Cedartown, 54-44.

That makes this week a big one for the Phoenix as they hosted Central Tuesday night and will go to Cedartown Friday night in their next two league games. (Details of the Sonoraville-Central game were not available at press time).

Twelve different players scored points for the Big Red in the big win with head coach Brent Mashburn clearing the bench and giving the reserves a lot of minutes in the second half, when the game was clearly decided.

Senior Donovan McDaniel led the balanced attack that saw three players reach double digit scoring with 17 points. Forward Jordyn Storey had 12 points and senior post Bryson Shellnutt added 10 more while guard Jaxon Pate, guard Elijah Woods, and senior Titus Smith each had eight in the win.

With four different players hitting five 3’s as Pate had two and McDaniel, Storey and Braxton Coats each added one, the Phoenix bolted to a 23-15 lead at the end of the first period.

From there, while they kept on making shots, the Phoenix also turned on the defense, allowing just 18 points the rest of the game