Cedartown gets big back to back wins

The Cedartown Bulldogs won their second straight region matchup last Friday in a big way, blowing out the visiting Central Lions 68-42. Having lost to the Lions at Central back on Jan. 8, the Bulldogs had a chip on their shoulders coming into yesterday’s matchup and it showed.

Coach Benjie Frazier’s Bulldogs opened a huge lead early on and never looked back. They led 15-3 after one period and 33-14 at halftime. For the Lions faithful that made the trip north on Highway 27, it did not get much better. Cedartown added more and more points, leading by more than 30 in the second half before finishing with a 26 point victory. This was by far the most impressive performance of the season for the Dawgs.

It was a spectacular night for the Johnson brothers, as Jeremiah scored 15 points and 9 rebounds and Jayden added 8 points and 9 rebounds. MJ Holiday scored 10 points, and DJ Frazier had 9 points on the day. Freshman Billy Darden scored 8 points and senior Elijah Pace finished with 7 points and 9 rebounds. Later in the game, Cedartown put in backups, as Jadon Powell scored 3 points and Ronald Knight had 2 points. Furthermore, Freshmen DeAndre Stevenson scored his first points all season against a region opponent, adding 2 points.

The Friday win came off the heels of a much needed bounce back for Cedartown to start last week versus LaGrange.

With the win, the Bulldogs were able to exact revenge on the Grangers, a team who beat them by 24 points two-and-a-half weeks ago.

The game remained close through the first half. LaGrange took their first lead in the last seconds of the second period, clinging to a 25-24 lead over Cedartown at halftime.

Neither team was able to create any separation in the third period either, and they went into the final period.

Fortunately for the Bulldog faithful, their team came out firing on all cylinders on offense in the fourth quarter.

Jayden Johnson made several rebounds to end Granger possessions, MJ Holiday tallied numerous steals, and Zah Frazier went airborne for a thunderous dunk to kill any motivation LaGrange had been trying to build. At the end of the day, Cedartown pulled away with a 5 point win.

Friday’s win put Cedartown at even overall at 10-10 and going into a press time matchup 4-5 in region play.

They had Coosa on the books for Saturday night at home, and are back in region play starting on Tuesday on a road trip to Troup County.

The Bulldogs look to exact revenge against the Tigers for a region loss earlier in the month.

Gail Conner / Contributed by Zah Frazier hit a big dunk over LaGrange to make a statement during the Bulldogs’ Jan. 22 win.

/ Contributed by Gail Conner Above: Passes all around the court kept LaGrange off balance against Cedartown on Jan. 22. Below left: Cedartown’s offense hit a stride at the right time against the LaGrange Grangers. Below right: Big steals allowed Cedartown to pull away from LaGrange in a win.

/ Contributed by Gail Conner CCS BASKETBALL: Avondale came to Cedartown in past days to face off against Covenant Christian School in middle school play. A final score wasn’t available at press time for the Jan. 24 matchup. Check online this week for more on the Rams and Lady Rams recent games.