After shaky start, Bobcats collect blowout win Lady Eagles finish third in ISC hoops tournament
Wins have been tough to come by for the Georgia Northwestern Bobcats this season and routs have been nonexistent with their three victories coming by just a combined 22 points.
But in their nextto-last home game of the season last Monday night at the Rossville Athletic Center, the Bobcats finally got to have a little fun.
A huge run at the tail end of the first half, combined with another huge run to start the second half, resulted in smiles all around for the Navy-and-Silver as they coasted to an 88-65 victory over the visiting Royal Crusaders from The Crown College.
Early on, though, it looked like the game would be anything but easy.
Crown held a narrow 12-11 lead in what was shaping up to be a backand-forth affair. But suddenly, the Bobcats simply couldn’t hang on the ball.
Turnovers on four consecutive maddening possessions had Georgia Northwestern looking for answers, while Crown took advantage with seven unanswered points to grab a 19-11 advantage at the 11:30 mark.
Bobcats head coach David Stephenson would finally call a time-out to settle his team down and settle down they did.
The Bobcats would commit just two turnovers the rest of the half and, as the turnovers went down, the team’s offense and defense picked up exponentially.
Spurred on by 13 first-half points from J.T. Langford and eight each from Tradyal Autry and Tyler Phillips, the Bobcats finished the first half shooting 48 percent from the field and a perfect 12-of-12 at the free throw line. They closed out the first half on a 30-7 run to go up 41-26 at the break.
The Royal Crusaders would score the first four points coming out of the locker room in an attempt to get back in the game. However, the Bobcats quickly let it be known that there would be no comeback as they reeled off a 36-14 spurt to take their biggest lead, 77-44, and put the game away.
Georgia Northwestern (4-17) shot 47 percent in the second half and had one of its best nights of the season at the charity stripe. Langford went 12-of-14 to help the Bobcats finish 22-of-25 (88 percent) at the line.
Langford had a new season-high with 24 points, giving him four games of 20 or more points in his last seven. Tyler Phillips had 19 points, including a perfect 5-of-5 behind the 3-point arc.
Phillips, who came into the game ranked fourth in Division II of the USCAA in 3-point percentage, is now 32-of-64 (50.0 percent) this year and is now temporarily tied for second nationally.
Autry had another double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds. Davantae Kimble also added 11 points, while Cole McKeehan picked up 10 points.
John Boutchia led all scorers with 26 points for Crown, while Amir Duffer dropped in 19 points.
Ga. N’western women 55, Toccoa Falls 43
The Lady Bobcats snapped a two-game losing skid with a win at Toccoa Falls College last Tuesday night.
Georgia Northwestern (10-7) led 33-24 at the break before going on to the victory.
Junior guard Katy Phillips had a seasonhigh 19 points, while freshman Tori Harvey had eight points and grabbed a career-high 23 rebounds, giving the ex-Heritage Lady Generals five straight games with double figures on the glass.
Mia Clark had her best scoring game of the year with 12 points. Madison Lewis added seven points and 10 boards. Christina DeSalvo had five points and four rebounds and Taylor Bethune picked up nine boards to go with four points.
The Lady Bobcats’ 10th win of the season tied the program’s alltime single-season mark and it was also the 550th career coaching victory for head coach David Stephenson.
Due to newspaper deadlines, results of Georgia Northwestern’s games at Welch College were not available as of press time.
Both teams will close out the regular season this Friday night with home games against Georgia Gwinnett College, starting at 6 p.m.
The Oakwood Christian Academy Middle School girls’ basketball team finished third in the ISC tournament, held at St. Jude’s School in Chattanooga.
OCA dropped its tournament opener to OLPH in the semifinals this past Saturday, but they rallied to beat the home team in the consolation game, 32-7.
Mana Gilchrist paced OCA with 13 points, followed by McKenley Baggett with four and Avery Green with three. Alli Dortch, Stacie Hass and Cheyenne Simpson each added two points.