Phoenix drop 7-4A opener at SE Whitfield
The Sonoraville basketball team split a pair of games over the weekend.
On Friday night, the Phoenix lost its Region 7-4A opener to Southeast Whitfield County, 45-41, before coming back Saturday afternoon to win a 46-45 thriller over Pickens County in their final non-Region game of the season.
The loss to begin a twogames-in-two-days scenario left them 0-1 in the league along with Heritage and Cedartown after Southeast Whitfield, Central, and Northwest Whitfield were all winners on the first night of play. Central defeated Heritage, 50-47, and Northwest Whitfield beat Cedartown, 73-67 in the two other Region contests Friday night.
The Phoenix visited Central Tuesday night (details were not available at press time) and then is at the Furnace Friday night for their Region home opener against Cedartown in their two 7-4A games this week.
Against Southeast Whitfield, it was a low-scoring affair with the Phoenix just one offensive run away from getting the win as both teams struggled at the offensive end.
The Phoenix got 32 of their 41 points from three players. Sophomore guard Ethan Woods led with 12 points and junior guards Donovan McDaniel and Jaxon Pate had 10 points each.
The game got off to a slow start with Sonoraville scoring just two points in the first quarter on a basket by senior Brant Bryant off the bench.
SE Whitfield only scored one two-point field goals itself in the period, but the Raiders also hit a threepointer and a trio of free throws to produce eight points and lead 8-2 at the end of the first.
The teams then pretty much swapped buckets in the second quarter with Sonoraville outscoring the hosts, 12-11, to pull within five at 19-14 at the break.
Woods got them going offensively, scoring four buckets in the second for eight of their dozen in that quarter.
They stayed within close range in the third when both teams tallied 12 points apiece, giving SE Whitfield a 26-21 lead after three periods.
McDaniel and postman Bryson Shellnutt had four points each in the third for Sonoraville.
The visitors did outscore the Raiders, 15-14, in the fourth quarter but couldn’t overtake them at the end.
Southeast Whitfield guard Cal Rich led all scorers in the game with 14 points and eight different Raiders scored to help the victory.
On Saturday, the Phoenix outscored the Dragons, 7-2, in the final three minutes to edge Pickens County by a point for their second win in three weeks against the Dragons.
Sonoraville got off to a fast start and led pretty much from start-to-finish although Pickens County did make things extremely interesting at the end.
Junior guard Jordyn Storey nailed a three-point shot to start the game and then McDaniel laid in a feed to the basket, giving the Phoenix a 5-0 lead three minutes in.
Pickens got on the board with a lay-up before Storey, who would make four three’s in the first half, nailed another trey from the right wing and Shellnutt converted inside for a 10-2 margin with 3:32 showing in the first.
From there, however, the Dragons went on a 9-4 run of their own to end the period and close the deficit to 14-11.
Sonoraville’s lead was two at 17-15 when Storey hit back-to-back three’s in the final 90 seconds of the second quater to put them up 23-15 and the Phoenix would lead 23-17 at the break.
They looked like they were going to avoid any dramatic endings in the third period, taking first a 10 and then a 12-point lead before the visitors stormed back.
The Phoenix started the second half with a basket by Shellnutt off a missed shot and when PC answered that with a basket, Pate hit a three-point shot for their first nine-point lead at 28-19.
A Woods’ layin a couple of minutes later gave them their second nine-point lead at 30-21. PC made a jumper from the foul line before the Phoenix went on a 5-0 run on another Storey 3-point shot and a Shellnutt layin for a 3523 margin with under two minutes left in the quarter.
The Dragons made two long three-pointers in the final 90 seconds, cutting their deficit to 35-29 heading into the fourth.
Pickens began the fourth period with a 10-3 run to take their first lead of the game at 40-39 and they increased that to 43-39 with just over three minutes remaining before the home team began its comeback.
The Phoenix are now 11-5 overall on the season.