Standard time measure clears Georgia Senate
LaFayette outworks GAC to reach AAA quarters
ATLANTA — The Georgia Senate passed legislation Wednesday, Feb. 24, that would put the Peach State on standard time all year.
The bill, which senators approved 46-7, would do away with switching back and forth twice a year between standard and daylight time, a system studies have shown disrupts sleep patterns.
Interfering with sleep during the two weeks following time changes every March and November impacts Georgians’ health and causes mood swings, said Sen. Ben Watson, R-Savannah, the bill’s chief sponsor.
“There’s a significantly higher percentage of heart attacks during the springforward time,” he said. “We have grumpy judges due to sleep deprivation giving harsher sentences.”
While Watson’s bill would move Georgia to standard time all year, it also calls for the state to move to daylight saving time if and when Congress allows states to make that switch. Current federal law permits states to go on standard time but not daylight saving time.
Watson said surrounding states including Florida, South Carolina and Tennessee are considering similar legislation.
Sen. Kim Jackson, D-Stone
Mountain, questioned the wisdom of Georgia acting now rather than waiting for Congress to let states switch to daylight time permanently. She said businesses including restaurants and concert venues prefer daylight time because it allows additional evening daylight hours.
“People like having more evening light,” Jackson said.
But Watson said observing daylight time during the winter would lead to dark mornings. The sun wouldn’t come up until almost 8:30 a.m. in December, prompting concerns for the safety of children going to school, he said.
Senate Bill 100 is cosponsored by Senate President Pro Tempore Butch Miller, R-Gainesville; Senate Majority Leader Mike Dugan, R-Carrollton; Republican Sens. John Kennedy of Macon and Dean Burke of Bainbridge; and Democratic Sen. Michelle Au of Johns Creek.
The bill now moves to the Georgia House of Representatives.
On Saturday night, for the second time in the past four months, Dan Priest Gymnasium was witness to an epic state playoff battle between Greater Atlanta Christian and the hometown LaFayette Ramblers.
And for the third time in the last four years, the LaFayette boys’ basketball team is on its way to the Elite Eight.
On the heels of the Lady Ramblers’ incredible fifth-set comeback against the Lady Spartans in the second round of the GHSA Class AAA state volleyball tournament in November, the Orangeand-Black simply found a way against a tall, fast and extremely athletic group of Spartans and posted a 63-54 victory.
“To God be the glory,” LaFayette head coach Hank Peppers said. “We’re a very, very blessed team and I’m very emotional right now, but these guys have put in the work. It’s just a testament to hard work, believing and just putting one foot in front of the other and letting things just fall into place.”
With the victory, LaFayette (22-1) will be back at home in the state quarterfinals against Cross Creek of Augusta, the Region 4 champions. The Razorbacks (22-4) moved on with a 60-52 win over Americus-Sumter on Saturday.
The contest is scheduled for this Wednesday night at 7 p.m. in LaFayette, meaning at least one more home game for the team’s lone senior, DeCameron Porter, who reached the 1,000-point mark for his career during the contest.
“This just means so much,” said Porter. “It’s just hard work and we just have to keep playing one game at a time. The rest will take care of itself.
“That was a good, athletic team, but we just kept pushing the pace and going at them and we were able to get the job done.”
GAC, which featured a pair of 6-foot9 players on its roster, saw its perceived height advantage negated by early foul trouble and a determined LaFayette effort on both ends of the floor.
The Ramblers played their usual, aggressive style of defense and showed no fear in taking the ball to the basket. That was especially true of junior guards Jaylon Ramsey and Junior Barber, the smallest two players on the court Saturday night, who frustrated the taller Spartans all evening long with their ability to knife their way through traffic and finish strong at the rim.
Peppers said his teams’ ability to get to the basket was one of the keys to the victory.
“That’s a heck of a team,” he said of GAC. “They’re tremendous athletes with tremendous skill. But I told my guys before the game (that) anybody can say what they want, but all that matters is what takes place between these lines, what you believe and how you see yourselves.
“It doesn’t matter what their heights are listed as on MaxPreps. All that matters is how hard you defend, how hard you rebound and how hard you sprint down the court and the rest will fall into place.”
The first quarter ended in an 11-11 tie, but GAC center Eddie Page picked up two fouls in the first two minutes of the game and was whistled for his third infraction with 1:25 left in the period.
Porter, who drew two of those fouls by taking charges, drained back-to-back 3-pointers early in the second quarter to spark a 10-2 run that had Priest Gymnasium rocking as the Ramblers forged a 21-13 lead.
GAC (17-12) would answer with a 9-1 run of its own to cut the LaFayette lead down to one with less than two minutes to play in the half. However, Barber responded with four straight points and the Ramblers would take a narrow 27-22 lead into the locker room.
Porter would pick up his third foul 15 seconds into the second half and the Spartans would score nine of the 14 points of the third quarter to tighten things up considerably.
But shortly thereafter, Page appeared to suffer an injury that left him temporarily bleeding. He sprinted to the visitors’ locker room to receive treatment, leaving GAC without its main big man once again.
Josh Fulton responded with a nice drive to the basket to regain the lead for his team for the first time since late in the opening quarter, but the Ramblers would refuse to let GAC steal the momentum.
Hadaway and Barber connected on back-to-back threes and Porter answered a GAC bucket with a turn-around, fade-away, 10-foot jumper in the paint. Then, after a defensive stop, Hadaway got inside the paint with 20 seconds left to give LaFayette a 43-36 cushion going into the fourth quarter.
Zach Barrett’s short jumper in the lane and another three by Barber was followed up by another strong move to the basket by Hadaway and the Ramblers’ advantage stood at 50-41 with 5:19 to play. However, GAC would punch back after Page returned to the court with five minutes left. Sparked by their center, the Spartans scored four straight points to trim the Ramblers’ lead down to 50-45 with 4:45 remaining in the contest.
They would get no closer. Three straight drives by Ramsey, Barber and Hadaway in a 1:09 span — the third set up by a block from Porter — stretched the lead out to 11 and Porter redirected a GAC 3-point attempt four rows into the stands to get the crowd hyped up again with two minutes left to play.
Fulton connected on a long jumper with 1:51 to go and the Spartans began to foul shortly thereafter, looking to put LaFayette on the line. But moments later, Porter got free under the basket and ultimately converted a 3-point play to make it a 10-point game with 1:38 remaining.
Porter and Hadaway each added two free throws in the
final 1:04 to seal LaFayette’s second consecutive secondround playoff victory.
“We study everybody and we studied a tremendous amount of film (for this game),” Peppers explained. “My assistant (coaches) did a great job of breaking down the film. GAC pressures the ball and they pressure the ball hard, but we thought (that) if we could beat the initial defender, then we’d have some options.
“DeCameron also did a great job taking those early charges, which took their shot blocker out of the game a little bit and that helped because it opened up some driving lanes.”
Porter and Hadaway both scored 19 points on the night, while Barber poured in 16. Ramsey finished with seven points to go with Barrett’s two.
Fulton, the athletic 6-6 swingman, led all scorers with 22 points, while Page and Chad Jackson dropped in 11 each for the Norcross squad.
LaFayette will now turn its attention to Cross Creek and an opportunity it has waited nearly a year to get as it will be a rematch of last year’s Elite Eight contest, which was also played in LaFayette.
The Razorbacks and Ramblers battled tooth-and-nail for four quarters last March before Cross Creek was able to pull out a 58-55 win on their way to the Class AAAA state championship game.
LaFayette 71, North Hall 40
A 30-5 first quarter took all the drama out of the Ramblers’ playoff opener last Wednesday night as LaFayette put on a defensive clinic against the outmatched Trojans.
The Trojans (11-13) took a 2-1 lead less than two minutes into the contest, but LaFayette reeled off a 15-0 run before North Hall called a time-out with 3:43 left in the quarter. The Trojans would score three straight points coming out of the break, only to see LaFayette counter with another 14-0 burst.
Hadaway, who was recognized during the first time-out as he surpassed the 1,000-point mark for his career early in the contest, got a good jump on his next 1,000 points as the junior accounted for 18 of the Ramblers’ points in the first quarter.
Hadaway finished with 32 points and nine rebounds and Porter added 15 points — all of which came in the first half — and grabbed a team-best 21 rebounds with several blocks. Jaylon Ramsey scored 10 points and Barrett added six, while four from Barber and two by Evan Williams rounded out the scoring.
Clark Howell was the only Trojan in double-figures as he finished with 10 points.
The LFO Warriors gave up seven runs in the second inning to county rival Heritage last Monday as the Red-andWhite dropped a 10-3 decision at Heritage.
LFO got three runs back in the top of the fourth. A pair of Heritage errors and a walk set the table for Chris Kelley. His grounder was misplayed, allowing two runs to cross the plate and Eli Walker added an RBIsingle one batter later.
However, back-to-back strikeouts would end the inning and the Generals immediately responded by getting three ore runs in the bottom of the frame.
Matthew Shields was saddled with the loss. He gave up seven hits and four walks and finished with five strikeouts. Tanner Mantooth threw two innings of scoreless relief, allowing no hits and one walk with three strikeouts.
Devan Hinton had two hits for LFO, while Will Carroll and Nyko Simpson added a single apiece.
Dawson County 12, LFO 1
Walker’s RBI-single in the top of the fifth proved to be the lone offensive bright spot for the Warriors last Tuesday as they dropped a road decision in Dawsonville.
The Tigers collected 10 total hits and did their damage with an eight-run third inning.
Carroll got the start on the hill and took the loss after giving up two earned runs on three hits and three walks in two innings. He finished with three strikeouts. Walker allowed seven earned on three hits and a walk with one K in one-third of an inning, while Mantooth closed it out. He pitched 1.2 innings and surrendered two earned runs on four hits with one strikeout.
Dawson County 12, LFO 6
The Warriors hosted the Tigers in the second game of a homeand-home series on Thursday, looking to salvage a split. However, the Tigers scored twice in the fifth and once more in the sixth to pick up the victory.
Dawson County put up five runs in the top of the first inning, only to see LFO respond with four in the bottom of the frame. The Tigers added a run in the second and three more in the third, while the Warriors (0-5) picked up their final two runs in the bottom of the fourth inning to cut the deficit to 9-6.
Simpson went 3 for 4 with a double and two runs scored. Carroll was 2 for 3. Hinton and Gage Kelley each delivered two RBIs, while Tres Brown knocked in one run.
Brown, Simpson, Kelley and Malachi Powell all pitched and combined to give up 10 hits and five walks with three strikeouts. Nine of the Tigers’ 12 runs were earned as LFO finished the night with three errors.