Phoenix hunt success in Region 7-4A
The Sonoraville High School boys and girls basketball teams currently own two of the best records in Region 7-4A.
So does that mean a playoff berth is in the very near future for both teams?
Well the answer to that question began to take shape Friday night when the Phoenix teams tipped off league play with a doubleheader at Southeast Whitfield County in both clubs’ Region lid-lifter in Dalton. (Details of the games were not available at press time).
The first two months of the season have been an unheralded success for both teams with the Phoenix boys winning 10 of their first 14 games while the girls have won 12 of their first 14 outings.
And both clubs were able to continue to build on that momentum when they both beat Adairsville Wednesday night in a pair of makeup games that were originally scheduled for Tuesday, but were called off because of the tornado warnings in the area.
And both are certainly working to earn postseason berths after each team, with a whole bunch of new players last year who are now seasoned veterans , came up short of making the playoffs its final winter in the 3A division.
For the boys, head coach Brent Mashburn’s team is tied with Central for the most wins in the Region as both teams have identical 10-4 records. After that, to this point, Northwest Whitfield is the only other team that is above .500 water with the Bruins sporting a 7-3 record.
The Phoenix enter Region activity looking to get hot again after they edged out Adairsville, 69-64, Wednesday night in the remake. That victory also snapped a two-game losing streak after they ended play in the Pickens County Christmas tournament just before the New Year with two losses after opening with a victory.
They began play in the Pickens tournament against Savannah Christian and beat them pretty easily with a 7935 win. But they followed that up with a pair of losses to much larger schools.
The day after they beat Savannah Christian, they lost a tough one to 6A Lassiter, 62-55, before closing out play on Friday December 30th in Jasper with a hard-fought 54-47 setback to 5A Cartersville.
One thing about playing in a six-team league is games can become important really quick and that is the case for the Phoenix as they played Southwest Whitfield Friday night and then go to Central next Tuesday and what could be an early showdown between two teams looking
to contend for a region title.
Southwest Whitfield came into the game with a 4-6 record and the Raiders have lost six of their last eight games after they started the season with two wins in a row.
The Central Lions are off to an outstanding start with 10 wins in their first 12 games and they are not that far from being a perfect 14-0 heading into Friday’s opening night games. They have lost both those games by a grand total of four points, falling to Villa Rica, 53-50, after losing their second game of the season back in mid-November to LaGrange, 53-52.
The Lions have been a tough nut to crack defensively, having given up 474 points in their first 12 games and that equates to allowing the opposition less than 40 points per night. They have not been a real high scoring team, having reached 60 points or more just twice this season and that includes Tuesday night’s 66-45 victory over Bowden. But they have held five of the teams they have played to 30 points or less and two others to 35 points or less.
For the Sonoraville girls, they were looking to get Region off to a good start with a win over Southeast Whitfield, which won just two of its first nine games to start the season.
The Lady Phoenix have accumulated the Region’s best record to this point and
it isn’t even close as they have four more wins than second place Central and three less losses, with the Lady Lions entering play this week at 7-5.
Other than that, every other team in the district is south of .500 with Northwest Whitfield County sitting at 5-7 while Heritage is 4-8. Cedartown was winless through the Lady Bulldogs’ first 10 games.
Sonoraville suffered just its second loss of the season last week at the Tiger Christmas classic in Adairsville, where it went 2-1 against three teams that made the playoffs last year. Playing excellent defense for three consecutive days, the Lady Phoenix gave up less than 105 points in those three games.
They began play in Bartow County a week ago Wednesday with a big 38-36 win over 6A Blessed Trinity, but suffered just their second loss this season the next day with a 44-38 loss to North Murray in a game that pitted former Region 6-3A rivals against each other.
But the Phoenix did not dwell on that loss very long, coming back on Friday, Dec. 30 to close out with a 62-24 win over Chattooga.
After playing Southeast Whitfield Friday night, the Phoenix return to the Furnace on Saturday afternoon for a non-region outing with Pickens. The girls will go into that game looking to avenge their first loss of the season, which was a 51-41 verdict against the Dragons.
The girls game is scheduled to begin at 4:00 p.m. while the boys game is scheduled to tip at 5:30.