The Catoosa County News

Bobcats’ week features both highs and lows

Season of struggles continues for Lady Bobcat hoopsters

- By Scott Herpst By Scott Herpst

If there was any one word to describe the past week for the Georgia Northweste­rn Bobcats, “interestin­g” would certainly be near the top of the list.

The Bobcats snapped a two-game losing streak, started a twogame winning streak, saw said two-game winning streak halted, were held to their lowest point total all season long and set a new season mark for fewest points allowed – in the same game – and set a new season-high for points in a game, all in a span of just six days.

The final tally is that the Bobcats began the week with a 10-9 overall mark, headed into Monday’s contest against the Tennessee Wesleyan JV squad, details of which were unable to be included in this week’s edition.

Ga. Northweste­rn 49, Welch College 45

It certainly won’t go down as the prettiest win of the season, but after two straight losses, any win could be considered a good one.

The Bobcats got out to a huge early lead and saw it completely disappear before they came back to score a victory over the visiting Flames last Tuesday at the Rossville Athletic Center.

The 45 points by the Flames were the fewest the Bobcats have allowed in a game this season, but it was also

The Georgia Northweste­rn Lady Bobcats are still in search of that elusive first win of the season after enduring three tough losses at the hands of four-year schools this past week.

Welch College 70, Ga. Northweste­rn 19

The visiting Lady Flames the fewest points scored by the Navy-and-Silver this year.

Georgia Northweste­rn blew an early 18-2 lead and held just a 25-23 lead at intermissi­on.

Welch would take its first lead of the game in the opening moments of the second half and they would push the advantage to 37-31 with 13 minutes to play.

However, the Bobcats would battle back to tie things up with 10:30 remaining on a steal and subsequent lay-up by Daniel Parrish. Just over a minute later, sharpshoot­er Patrick Simmons drained a 3-pointer, giving the Bobcats a 40-39 lead.

The home team would never trail again, but it would have to work to keep the lead. Welch would get it back to a onepossess­ion game with a minute to play, but the Bobcats would force an important turnover with 35 seconds left.

Daniel Parrish had 15 points to lead the way for the Bobcats, while he added six rebounds. Darrius Fugh scored 10 points and had a teamhigh eight boards, while Demonte Parker had seven points and seven rebounds.

Patrick Simmons scored nine on three 3-pointers and Alec Rattanaxay finished with eight points. The Bobcats shot just 33.3 percent on the night (18-of-54), but limited the Flames to just 25 percent shooting (18-of72) from the floor. showed absolutely no sluggishne­ss following their trip from Nashville to Rossville last Tuesday as they came off the bus gunning in a big win over the Lady Bobcats.

Welch scored the first 20 points of the game and they would tack on another 11-0 run before the quarter ended to take a commanding 33-5 lead after the game’s first 10

Ga. Northweste­rn 101, Bryan College (JV) 95

This past Thursday night in Dayton, Tenn., the Bobcats erased a four-point halftime deficit and cracked the century mark, but needed every point they could get to polish off a sweep of the Lions this season.

The 101 points were the most points the Bobcats have scored this season and the most points the Bobcats have scored in any game since a 98-87 win over LaGrange College (JV) on Nov. 17, 2015.

Bryan led 47-43 at intermissi­on and the back-and-forth action would continue in the second half as the scoreboard lit up at a torrid pace.

Georgia Northweste­rn led 9690 when Bryan hit its eighth 3-pointer of the second half - and 17th of the game - to pull within three at 96-93 with 32 seconds left. But the Bobcats would win it at the line as Fugh, Parrish and Parker would go 5-of-6 at the charity stripe in the closing seconds to keep the Lions at bay.

Fugh had 29 points and 12 rebounds. Parrish had 21 points and eight assists. Parker went for 19 points and seven boards, while Simmons went 6-of-10 from behind the arc and finished with 18 points.

West Georgia Tech 89, Ga. Northweste­rn 86

The Bobcats led by one with 1:01 to play minutes.

They enjoyed their biggest lead of the first half at intermissi­on as they led 42-7.

Sharqueva McCoy led the Lady Bobcats with eight points and eight rebounds. Taylor Hines scored six points, followed by Carrie Benedict with four and Sprite Dyer with one.

Bryan College JV 85, Ga. Northweste­rn 37

The Lady Bobcats put two players in double figures this past Thursday night, but it wasn’t enough to get past the Lady Lions, who posted a win in Dayton, Tenn.

Dyer had 15 points and seven rebounds in the loss. Katy Phillips finished with 11 points, six rebounds and two assists, while McCoy had nine points and 11 boards. Benedict rounded out the scoring with two points to go with five rebounds.

Hiwassee women 72, Ga. Northweste­rn 25

It was Pink Night for Breast Cancer Awareness at the Rossville Athletic Center, but the Lady Tigers from Madisonvil­le, Tenn. left the Lady Bobcats feeling blue after a win in Saturday’s opener.

Hiwassee led 4217 at the break as they dropped Georgia Northweste­rn to 0-15 on the year.

McCoy had 10 points to lead the Lady Bobcats. Dyer and Hines added five each. Phillips finished with three points and Benedict had two.

The Lady Bobcats will play again this Friday at 5 p.m. at Toccoa Falls College.

on Saturday, but the visiting Golden Knights would hearts in closing seconds as they left Rossville with a threepoint win, ending Georgia Northweste­rn’s modest two-game winning streak.

The Bobcats would lead by double digits for most of the first half and led by as many as 13 in the opening 20 minutes. But Joe Boyer would score 17 in the first half for the Golden Knights to keep them in the game.

West Georgia Tech began to slowly chip away at the lead in the second half, finally making it a one-possession game with 11:45 to go. But Darius Floyd would hit a 3-pointer for the Bobcats, temporaril­y pushing the lead back to six, 68-62, with 10:30 remaining.

The lead was still six with 6:40 to go, but the Knights would reel off nine unanswered points to take their first lead of the game, 79-76, with 4:44 left to play.

The two former region foes would go back and forth over the next four minutes before Darius Floyd drained his third trey of the game to give his team an 86-85 lead with 61 seconds to go.

But Boyer immediatel­y answered with his game-high 23rd and 24th points of the night and Parrish couldn’t connect on a turnaround jumper in the lane with 25 seconds to go, forcing the Bobcats to foul.

Bryan Foster would hit two free tosses to up the lead to three and that would be enough as Floyd’s potential game-tying 3-point attempt from the corner bounced off the iron with two seconds left.

Fugh and Parrish had 21 points each for Georgia Northweste­rn and the duo combined for 12 rebounds. Simmons had 12 points on four 3-pointers, while Floyd had nine points. Rattanaxay scored just four points, but collected four steals and dished out 10 assists.

 ??  ?? Darrius Fugh drives to the hoop past West Georgia Tech’s Willie Thomas during Saturday’s game in Rossville. (Catoosa County News photo/Scott Herpst)
Darrius Fugh drives to the hoop past West Georgia Tech’s Willie Thomas during Saturday’s game in Rossville. (Catoosa County News photo/Scott Herpst)

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