GNTC hoopsters close out 2016-2017 season
A victory on the final day of the season appeared to be in the cards for the Georgia Northwestern Lady Bobcats this past Thursday night.
Facing the Covenant College JV program, the Lady Bobcats used a 7-0 run to start the second quarter and take a 19-12 lead.
However, it simply wasn’t meant to be.
The Lady Scots closed out the half on a 10-2 run to take a 2221 lead and the Lady Bobcats would not get closer than two points the rest of the way as Covenant pulled away in the fourth quarter for a 48-37 victory.
Katy Phillips paced the Lady Bobcats (0-17) with 11 points to go with four rebounds and three assists. Sprite Dyer had 10 points and seven boards. Carrie Benedict picked up nine points, eight rebounds and three blocks. Sharqueva McCoy finished with seven points and a dozen rebounds, while Kaylin Graham had four rebounds.
The final buzzer closed the book on another tough season for the Lady Bobcats.
Starting with a roster of 11 before the season tipped off, three players left the team before playing even a single game. Two more were lost for academics reasons before the season ended and last year’s starting center, Madison Lewis, missed the entire season while recovering from knee surgery.
As a result, the Lady Bobcats finished the year with just five players in uniform for the final game.
“We came close (to winning) a couple of times,” head coach David Stephenson said. “We talked about changing the culture for (women’s basketball) here and once we do that, the wins will start to come.
“We’ve got to keep finding more and more players that are willing and dedicated to helping us (change the culture). We’re already out there recruiting and we’re hoping to sign 12 or 13 girls to add to the two or three that we believe are coming back next year.”
Covenant JV men 75, Ga. Northwestern 72
The Georgia Northwestern Bobcats saw their chance to secure a winning regular season slip away at home as the visiting Scots got a measure of revenge for a five-point home loss to the Bobcats last month with a three-point victory in Rossville.
The Bobcats led 41-37 at intermission. Transition points had gotten the home team out to as much as a 14-point lead with less than seven minutes to play in the opening half. But Ari Zorns had 15 points in the first half for the Scots as he helped whittle down the Bobcats’ lead.
Covenant would open the second half on a 7-2 spurt to take a 44-43 lead with 16:30 to play and would never trail again, although were never able to put the Bobcats away until the final horn had sounded.
The Scots boosted their lead to double digits, 64-54, with seven minutes to go when the home team started to chip away.
Clynt Bell and Alec Rattanaxay would hit 3-pointers and a trey by Darrius Fugh cut the Scots’ lead to 71-69 with 50 seconds remaining. Covenant would connect on two free throws, but a threeball by Rattanaxay with a half-minute left pulled GNTC to 73-72.
The Bobcats were forced to foul and the Scots again made both free throws. Fugh would get one final look at a game-tying three, but the ball would bounce off the rim as time expired.
Zorns finished with 24 points for Covenant, followed by Joe Womack with 16 and Jake Johnson with 14.
Fugh paced the Bobcats with 21 points to go with seven rebounds and four assists. Demonte Parker had 12 points and six boards. Rattanaxay finished with 14 points and six rebounds, while Patrick Simmons, Daniel Parrish and Darius Floyd had six points apiece.
Free throw shooting once again hurt the Bobcats as they were just 13-of-23 from the line for the game.
Warren Wilson College men 85, Ga. Northwestern 58
On Saturday in the regular season finale, the Bobcats went down 30-21 at halftime to the Owls, who entered the game ranked No. 15 in the latest USCAA Division II Men’s poll.
But the visitors from North Carolina would pull away in the second half, going up by as much as 29 points late in the game.
Darrius Fugh ended the year with a 27-point, 10-rebound effort. The
sophomore from Rome finished the season with 529 points, three points less than his singleseason, record-setting, 2015-2016 campaign when he scored 532 points in 27 games.
However, playing just 23 games this season, he broke his own single-season average record of 19.7 points per game, which he achieved last year. Fugh averaged an even 23 points per game this season, breaking 30 points on three occasions, including a single-game record of 39 against Hiwassee College on Feb. 9.
Rattanaxay had
10 points and four boards in the loss, while Daniel Parrish added six points and five rebounds in the season’s swan song.
The Bobcats finished the year with an even 12-12 overall record.
“Of the 12 games we lost, we legitimately could have won and should have won four or five of those,” Stephenson said. “But considering our lack of post players, for us to do this well, I’m pleased with the effort we had. We would have liked to have been one or two games over .500, but we’re pleased with this.”