‘Canes Defeat Lamar
The Monticello High School varsity basketball squads delivered wins over Lamar County Tuesday at home keeping both the girls and boys teams undefeated thus far in Region 4AA.
The Lady Canes victory comes after splitting action on the road over the weekend at Jones and Greene.
At Jones on Saturday the ladies fell 50-33. Momentum and scoring was slow as the squad only managed 13 points to the Lady Greyhounds 30 points in the first half. The second half went a lot better for the squad while keeping the scoring even at 20 points.
Maya Stokes was named the Player of the Game; she earned a double-double with 15 points and 10 rebounds for the night.
It was a 60-49 victory for the Lady Canes at Greene on Friday. The ladies earned a commanding lead in the first half outscoring the Lady Tigers 38-20 and maintained most of that energy into the second half.
Morgan Stokes had a stellar night as she was named Player of the Game. She was the first of the senior twins to earn a double-double this weekend with 26 points and 10 rebounds. Morgan also had 5 steals just five short of earning a triple-double.
The varsity Canes faired much better with the 46-40 win over Lamar than they did the past weekend losing to both Jones and Greene.
“Weekend losses were disappointing but the region win was nice rebound for us,” said head coach B.J. Thomas.
“The losses have helped me look at what we need to work on and how I can better structure our playing time.”
In Tuesday’s region win, De’Miria Glover led the scoring with 14 points while adding 5 rebounds. Jakari Middlebrooks scored 10 points and added 7 rebounds.
In the 83-56 loss to Jones, Glover had a good night on the boards pulling in 20 points followed by Jordan Stone with 10.
The Canes fell 80-59 to Greene following a four-point lead at the half. Second half fatigue plagued the team as they couldn’t keep up with the pace of the Tigers who outplayed the Canes and pulled out the victory with a strong fourth quarter effort.
“I took a close look at Saturday’s loss going into our region game Tuesday and made adjustments that helped us slow down the pace of the game and play ‘our’ game not theirs,” said the coach.
Coach Thomas noted that the Greene loss wasn’t as bad as the final score might indicate, it’s just that the squad lacked energy and effort going into the stretch.
The varsity teams are scheduled to play in the Henry County holiday tournament this weekend. The Lady Canes are slated to face South Paulding High School Saturday, Dec. 20 at 3 p.m. and the Canes will take on Fayette County at 4:30 p.m. Depending on Saturday’s results the squads could see action on Monday and Tuesday, Dec. 22-23 as the holiday tournament continues.
Following the upcoming tournament the squads will have a hiatus until Tuesday, Jan. 6 when region action resumes at Crawford. The region stretch will continue Friday, Jan. 9 in Macon.