Local teams get into region play, Sports
The first week of region play provided mixed results for the boys and girls playing in red and black for Cedartown High School, but one thing is for sure: the season is far from over.
Cedartown’s girls sit at 7-6 after press time on the season while the boys were at 7-5 with no score in yet for their Saturday game after the opening week of region play, and the two teams will get the opening of the week off before returning back to work this Friday on the road taking a long trip to play Troup County, and then are back home for Sandy Creek on Saturday.
Last week’s results put Cedartown in the middle of the pack in Region 5- AAAA overall, with Sandy Creek leading the way for both the boys and girls early on. LaGrange stands in second in girls play, while Cartersville held second place for the boys.
Here’s an overview of how the teams fared during the first week of region play:
Young Lady Bulldogs team
falling short
A close win over Cartersville gave the Lady Bulldogs a chance to bounce back after a losses in Chattooga County Holiday Tournament to open region play, but things didn’t go so well for the end of the week.
Head coach Eddie Gambrell said that his young Lady Bulldogs team have struggled during first halves of games, but then worked to bounce back in the second.
“We are a very young team, and some of these girls they don’t understand that you have to come at a high level,” Gambrell said. “LaGrange came out early, they attacked us and we backed down. We’ve got to come out and be better competitors... when we’re down 15 or 20, I expect them to compete.”
The 7-7 Lady Bulldogs stand at 1-2 in Region 5-AAAA after the 41-40 win over Cartersville on Jan. 2, but then couldn’t get ahead in their losses at the end of the week against LaGrange at home, and then away at Central Carroll.
Cedartown’s double digit loss at home to LaGrange ended on a bright note: a half court basket put up by Keke Turner landed and cut the Lady Grangers ending lead to a 65-50 score.
The Lady Bulldogs weren’t able to overcome Central in a 44-41 loss to end the week.
With time off at the opening of the second semester without a Tuesday game on the schedule, the Lady Bulldogs will have a chance to regroup before a trip to Troup County to play an equally matched Lady Tigers on Friday, then host the region leading Lady Patriots from Sandy Creek.
“We’ve got a lot of teams in our region that are in the same position we are, so we can compete with other teams,” Gambrell said.
Boys look to bounce back
Cedartown’s boys will have some work to do this weekend against Troup and Sandy Creek in hopes of catching back up after a loss to open region play in a double digit loss to Cartersville.
Trevon Wofford made a statement Friday night during their home game against LaGrange with a fourth quarter slam dunk that provided a crowd pleaser during their 5541 win over the Grangers.
It came after Cedartown’s loss at the start of the week to Cartersville on the road in a 26-point loss (60-34) to the Purple Hurricanes.
A score for their trip to Central Carroll wasn’t available at press time.
At just above breakeven f or t he season, the fourth- place in the region Bulldogs have a chance against a third place Troup on the road to build their position in 5-AAAA, and then host Sandy Creek on Saturday, who led the region at press time as well.