State-ranked Haralson County closes the book on LFO’s season
Heritage
Thursday night and the second-seeded Ramblers beat the third-seeded Heritage Generals in the semifinals.
Jon Morgan scored all 23 of his points for the Ramblers in the first half, accounting for all but two of LaFayette’s 25 first-half points. He also finished the game wth 16 rebounds
Heritage, however, would come back in the second half as they made up the 25-18 deficit. They outscored LaFayette in the third, 15-9, and had a 43-42 lead in the final seconds before Kelehear’s late-game heroics. The Generals got a final look at a potential gamewinner themselves, but the shot was off the mark.
Wilcox led Heritage with 16 points and broke the 1,000 career-point mark in the loss. Bryan added eight points and Seth Carter finished with seven.
Heritage 55, Ridgeland 50
The Generals locked up the No. 3 seed after holding off the Panthers in the fourth quarter on Friday.
Heritage led 25-24 at halftime and stretched out their advantage to 43-34 going into the fourth quarter. Ridgeland battled back in the final period, outscoring the Generals, 16-8, but fell five points short.
Wilcox had 18 points for Heritage in the win. Luke Grant finished with 12, followed by Wilson with nine and Carter with eight.
It’s difficult to beat a team twice in one season, but that was the challenge awaiting the Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe Lady Warriors in their Region 6-AAA quarterfinal game at Calhoun High School last Wednesday night.
All they had to do was take down the Haralson County Rebelettes, a team state-ranked in at least one poll and winners of over 20 games, whose only other previously losses had come against state-ranked region foes Calhoun and Ringgold and against one team from out of state.
LFO got the better of Haralson County, 61-54, back on Dec. 6 in Tallapoosa and with just about 5:30 remaining on Wednesday, it looked as though the Lady Warriors were going to be able to complete their task
Unfortunately, LFO would go nearly five full minutes without scoring and the Rebelettes would go on to claim a 50-42 victory, ending the Lady Warriors’ season at 17-10.
“We were always in the game,” LFO head coach Dewayne Watkins said. “(Haralson County) went on that little stretch there (in the fourth quarter) when we started to get a little winded, but that’s a good team. We beat them earlier in the year and we knew that it wasn’t going to be easy to beat them a second time. They’ve won over 20 games, they’re wellcoached and they’re ranked in the state for a reason. They’re a really disciplined team.”
Two 3-pointers from Jazzmyn Elston gave LFO an 8-3 lead - its biggest of the night – early in the first quarter. But the Rebelettes countered with an 11-3 run as the two teams ended the first period deadlocked at 14.
The Lady Warriors went back in front early in the second quarter as Gabby Ware connected on a trey, but a late 3-pointer by Claire Robinson and a short jumper by Kayleigh Bagwell with six ticks left in the half gave Haralson a 30-24 cushion at the break.
The Rebelettes had a 32-28 advantage with 6:30 left in the third quarter, but neither team would dent the scoreboard again for nearly six minutes before Haralson finally got one to drop. But,
following a Haralson turnover at midcourt with 1.6 seconds left, LFO’s Macey Gregg banked in a 30-footer at the buzzer, slicing the gap down to one, 34-33, and swinging the momentum the way of the ladies from Fort Oglethorpe.
Gregg hit two quick buckets to open the third as the scoring picked up considerably for both teams. Elston was fouled on a drive to the basket and the senior hit two free throws to finally put the Lady Warriors back in front, 39-38, with 5:26 left to play.
However, it would be the last points LFO would score until less than minute remained in the game.
A 9-0 run gave Haralson its biggest lead of the night, 47-39, with 3:24 left and, after Gregg missed a shot at the other end, the Rebelettes were content to start running off some clock before LFO was finally forced to start fouling with 1:40 to play.
The Lady Warriors would trim the lead to 47-41 with 49.8 seconds to go, but three final free throws by Haralson in the last 36 seconds would seal the win.
Elston had 18 points
in her final game for LFO. Gregg finished with 11 points and Ware chipped in with eight. Sydni Eaves scored just one point, but grabbed 10 rebounds, collected three steals and dished out three assists.
LFO girls 60, Bremen 46
A big night from Eaves helped lift the Lady Warriors to a win in their tournament opener last Monday night.
The senior had a double-double with 10 points and 16 rebounds and added seven steals in the win. Elston, the team’s other senior, had 17 points and six boards, while Gregg scored a team-high 19 points and grabbed seven rebounds. Elston and Gregg each had three 3-pointers as LFO connected on eight as a team.
“Jazzmyn has been a special player for us the last three years,” Watkins added. “She ended up with over 1,000 (career) points, which is great accomplishment. Sydni has been our rock the last three years. She’s been very consistent. She didn’t lead us in scoring (last year), but she led us in a lot of other categories, enough where I felt she was our MVP last year.
“Those two seniors are going to be tough to replace.”