Cougars Head To Region Tourney
The Piedmont Academy varsity boys basketball team is set to begin play in the Region 1-AA tournament.
Coach Chip Champion’s team will play the winner of Gatewood/Monroe Academy today, Feb. 9 at 5:30 p.m. The region tournament is being held this year at Brentwood Academy in Sandersville.
The Cougars enter the region tournament as the top seed and Champion said earlier this week it will be important for his team to win the tournament in order to enter state as a No. 1 seed.
Gatewood was the favored team against Monroe Academy earlier this week. Piedmont defeated the Gators by 12 and four points during the regular season. Champion said he was preparing for Gatewood, but noted he would make the necessary adjustment if Monroe Academy pulled the upset.
The Cougars lost their final regular season region game to Briarwood last Friday as the host Buccanneers took a 56-33 win. Briarwood had the incentive of being the No. 2 seed for the region tournament with a win against Piedmont and had the benefit of playing in its home gym with a large, noisy crowd.
“We made a few mental mistakes and suddenly it was out of hand,” Champion said. “It was Briar-wood’s senior night and they had a lot to play for and we really didn’t handle the game well. We didn’t play good defense. Part of the problem was that we had already locked the No. 1 seed and in theory didn’t really have a lot to play for. The atmosphere bothered us, but we have to get used to playing in front of a crowd like that for the state tournament.”
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Piedmont defeated Briarwood by 12 points earlier in the regular season. Lance Richardson was the team’s leading scorer in the rematch with 18 points.
“We will use that game as a wake-up call,” Champion said. “I hated to have a game like that, but maybe we needed it.”
The Cougars were able to bounce back to defeat non-region foe Westfield 51-47 Saturday. Chris Hornibrook led the team with 16 points while Richardson finished with 10.
“It was a very physical game,” Champion said. “We struggled some, but at times we played well. We eventually decided to wake up and play.”
The game was tied after the third quarter, but Piedmont outscored the Hornets 17-13 in the fourth.
“There wasn’t much motivation to play a non-region game for the last regular season game,” Champion said. “They did beat us in overtime in December so we tried to use that as motivation.”
Piedmont enters the postseason at 19-6 overall and 10-2 in Region 1-AA. The records are vast improvements from last season when the Cougars were 5-21 overall and 1-11 in region play.
The Piedmont Academy Lady Cougars saw the curtain fall on their season Tuesday night in an opening-round game of the region tournament.
The Piedmont girls fell to Edmund Burke 58-40 although Bailey Myers had a strong performance with 21 points and 10 rebounds. Carrie Tucker added 15 points and had seven steals.
“We had a young team this season, but we improved as the season went on,” said Piedmont coach Kenny Roberts, who returned this season to coach the Lady Cougars.
Prior to the region tournament, the Lady Cougars wrapped up the regular season Saturday falling to Westfield 55-41.
In a game in which 61 fouls were called, Piedmont was led by Tucker who scored 11 points and had nine rebounds and five steals. The two teams combined to shoot 86 free throws in the contest which took two hours to play.
Kayla Landreau finished with eight points while Kirstie Lewis and Myers both scored six. With his team in foul trouble, Roberts had to take advantage of his entire roster and got quality play from Priscilla Jones, Beth Hamilton, Crystal Freeman and Amanda Hauther.
Prior to the Westfield game, the Lady Cougars fell to Briarwood 66-48. Tucker scored a season-high 27 points and had five steals while Lewis scored 12 points and pulled down six boards.
“We are looking forward to next season when we will be a more experienced team,” Roberts said. “The girls worked hard throughout this season and I appreciate their efforts.”