Middle school basketball teams sweep Hahira

January 10, 2009 10:43 pm

— MOULTRIE — The Colquitt County middle school basketball teams won all four of their games against Hahira on Saturday as they continue preparing for their conference tournaments, which begin Jan. 22.
The eighth-grade teams gave plenty of court time to their reserves, but still came away with a pair of convincing victories.
The eighth-grade Lady Packers ran their record to 9-3 with a 36-26 in Hahira.
Coach Palisa Harris’s girls were coming off a 37-32 loss to Coffee on Thursday, but had little trouble with Hahira.
Ja’Nice Sailor led the Lady Packers with 20 points. Cheyenne Reynolds added six, Aikerrion Ryce had four, Shameka Reynolds had three, Maiya Thompson had two and Tiara Almond had one.
“Our defense was better,” Harris said. “And we handled their press well.”
Every player on the eighth-grade boys roster played and all but one scored.
Raheen McClendon led the Packers with eight points. Rashawn Edwards and John Peterson had five; Caleb Brown and Deonte Johnson had four; Jeffery Davis had three; Sam Howard, Ken White, Quen Jenkins, Quin Osby and Tymetrious Lowery had two; and Carlos Johnson had a free throw.
“We started the guys who rarely get a chance to play much and they did an outstanding job,” said coach Roger Jones, who noted that the Packers led 8-1 after the first quarter and 20-8 at the half.
Jones was especially pleased with the play of Osby.
“He ran the team like he had been doing it all year,” Jones said.
“I’m really proud of all the kids,” Jones said. “Hahira was overmatched, but we tried not to run up the score. We just wanted to give everybody a chance to play.”
The eighth-grade teams will return to the Willie J. Williams Middle School gymnasium to play host to Worth County, beginning at 4:30 p.m. Monday.
The eighth-graders also will be home on Friday to play host to Tift County.
The South Georgia Athletic Conference eighth-grade tournament will begin on Thursday, Jan. 22, at Coffee.
At the Charlie A. Gray Middle School gymnasium on Saturday, the seventh-graders also had little trouble with their Hahira counterparts.
The seventh-grade Packers are now 7-4 after their 34-29 victory.
Looking to hold on to their likely No. 3 seed in the South Georgia Athletic Conference tournament, the Packers rallied from a four-point, fourth-quarter deficit to get the five-point victory.
“We played a nice fourth quarter,” said coach John Phillips. “We held (Hahira) to just two points.
“It was a nice one to win. We’re just trying ot get ready to do something in the tournament.”
Kenji Thompson had the big plays in the fourth quarter, hitting a pair of 3-pointers.
The game was tied 7-7 after the first quarter and Colquitt trailed 17-12 at the half and 27-23 heading into the final quarter.
Brandon Key led the seventh-grade Packers with 11 points. Thompson had six and Daniel Mobley added five.
The seventh-grade girls led 5-0 after the first quarter and 13-2 at the half and eased on to a 24-10 victory.
“The story of the game was that we shut them down in the first half,” Coach Jon Scroggins said.
The Lady Packers were led by Dexshalyn Polite, who had 10 points.
Abbi Beth Paulk had six, Josey Fowler had four and Jazzlyn Collier and Ashlee Parrish each had two.
The victory raises the seventh-grade girls record to 5-6.
The seventh-graders will play their final pre-tournament games on Friday at Tifton.