Heritage girls secure No. 4 seed for region tournament
The Heritage Lady Generals failed to score in the third quarter, but managed to overcome a twopoint deficit going into the fourth and score an important 39-36 win over visiting Central-carroll in a Region 7-AAAA make-up game on Thursday.
The Navy-and-red were up 10 points at halftime, but were outscored 12-0 in the third and went into the final eight minutes down 27-25.
Heritage, though, refused to let a bad quarter derail them. Lauren Mock had six points in the final period and Brooke Matherly connected on a big 3-pointer as the home team rallied for the three-point victory.
Mock had 18 points to pace the Lady Generals, followed by Matherly with 14 as the duo accounted for the bulk of the scoring. Dayonna Perryman’s three points and two apiece from Riley Kokinda and Gracie Murray capped the night.
Heritage closed out the regular season with a 45-21 loss in another make-up game at Northwest. Individual scoring for the Lady Generals (15-6, 8-3) was not available as of press time.
The Lady Generals were scheduled to open the region tournament at home against Central-carroll Tuesday at 6 p.m.
The Tigers also took some much-needed momentum into the region tournament open after fighting back from a 10-point deficit to score a win in the nightcap.
A physical first half saw the Colts take a 14-12 halfway through the second period. But coming out of a timeout, the visitors would go on to outscore Ringgold 12-4 the rest of the way to grab a 26-16 lead at intermission.
The lead would hover around 10 points for much of the third quarter, but five unanswered points by the Tigers in the final two minutes set the stage for a thrilling final period.
O’reilly Matthews connected from behind the arc with 6:04 to go, Caden Dodson would add a pair of free throws with 4:52 remaining to tie the game at 36, and Dodson would add a putback less than 30 seconds
later to Ringgold their first lead since early in the second quarter.
Walker Wilson would answer with a 3-pointer for the Colts, but Matthews would get free for a transition lay-up with two minutes to go and, following a steal by Daniel Fow, Brevin Massengale put back a miss to give the Tigers a 42-41 lead with 1:15 left to play.
Riley Mutter responded for the Colts with a 3-pointer to put his team back up by two. However, Alex Otting immediately answered by hitting a three from the top of the key to regain a one-point lead for the Tigers and Fow would come up big again with another steal seconds later.
The senior guard hit both ends of a one-and-one foul with 28 seconds to go and, after the Colts missed on a 3-point attempt, Matthews grabbed the rebound and knocked down pair of shots to push the lead to five with 16 seconds to play.
Coahulla would score on a
drive to the basket with nine seconds to go keep it a onepossession game. However, Matthews sunk one final free throw with eight ticks left on the clock to seal the victory and set off an eruption of emotion on the Ringgold bench that carried over into the locker room.
Matthews had a gamehigh 20 points for the Tigers (2-18, 2-14). Dodson picked up 11 points. Otting scored seven and Massengale added six, while Fow and Gage Long had three points apiece.
The Tigers won its tournament opener against Adairsville on Saturday and were slated for a rematch with the Colts on Tuesday at Sonoraville. Coverage of that game can be found on our website (northwestgeorgianews.com) and it will be in next week’s edition.
Ringgold girls 37, North Murray 28
The Lady Tigers picked
up a win in low- scoring game last Tuesday night in Chatsworth.
Lopez had three 3-pointers and 15 points for Ringgold, who led wire-to-wire. Nayadley scored eight points, while Reed had five points and seven rebounds. Pitts, Addi Broome and Jade Gainer each added three points, while Hemphill aided the cause with four assists.
North Murray boys 58, Ringgold 44
The nightcap saw both teams put up 13 and seven points, respectively, in each of the first two quarters. However, the Mountaineers would break the deadlock by outscoring the Tigers 38-24 in the second half.
Matthews had 18 points to set the pace for Ringgold, followed by nine from Christian Balistreri and seven from Dodson. Five from Fow, two from Massengale and one by Otting filled out the scoresheet.