Hurricanes Split Action Against Putnam, Lose to Rabun and Defeat Oglethorpe
The varsity Hurricane squads have had a relatively good start to begin the new year on the basketball court.
The Lady Canes fell 70-68 in a heartbreaker during overtime while hosting the Lady War Eagles of Putnam County Friday in the Jasper County Middle School gym. The high school competitions were held in the middle school gym for the dedication and renaming of that facility to the Lester Davis Gymnasium.
The ladies led most of the game with things heating up in the third quarter with brief lead interchanges between the two teams. With just seconds on the clock nearing the close of regulation the Lady War Eagles came back from four points down to tie the game. Both teams battled hard in overtime and without the three-point shot from M. Abbott, that the referee blew dead, with seconds on the clock that would have meant double overtime for the squads, the game came to a close.
The Lady Canes also suffered defeat, 57-46, Saturday when Rabun County came to town playing back at the high school. The ladies rebounded Tuesday with a victory over the Lady Patriots of Oglethorpe. All three games were region competitions and the tally for the Lady Canes is currently 2-3. Rabun stands 6-0 in region play with Putnam following at 5-1.
The Canes earned their first win of the season against longtime region rival Putnam Friday with a score of 55-44.Jay Fleetwood led with 26 points and was 6-for-6 in free throws which Coach Chris Pennamon said helped seal the victory. Kedrion Jackson added 14 points.
“This game and win was truly special to us because many of my seniors were on the middle school championship team, coached by Coach Rufus Whitlock, that went undefeated,” noted Coach Pennamon.
“Along with it being the night we were dedicating the gym to Coach Lester Davis who graciously let me be a manager for his teams when I was young. So we really wanted to represent the school and community well in that game so we has a lot of added motivation to do well.”
On Saturday the canes had a narrow loss to Rabun, 65-61.
“Saturday’s game was a hard loss to take because we blew a 15-point fourth quarter lead to lose by four,” said the coach. “I think we got a little over confident going into the fourth. Rabun showed us differently and we had no answer for their three point ball play and we fell apart defensively.”
Fleetwood led with 17 points, Jordin Thomas had 11; and Corde Ross added 9.
On Tuesday’s 50-35 win against Oglethorpe, Coach Pennamon said the following:
“During Tuesday’s game at Oglethorpe we had to redeem ourselves from the poor completion of our game on Saturday. We started out a little slow in the first quarter only to end the quarter with a 13-6 lead by seven points. The second quarter we kept them in the game by fouling them and sending them to the free throw line 10 times where they were 6-for-10. These allowed them to hang around in the first half. We went into halftime with a 29-20 lead.”
He continued, “in the third quarter our starters Jaymerious Fleetwood, Jordin Thomas, Corde Ross, Keon Maddox and Johari Stone came in dialed in and we jumped out to a 20-point lead with the score being 43-23 at the end of the third. We started to clear the bench in the start of the fourth quarter and in about three minutes they had cut the lead that had swelled to 25 points within the first minute of the fourth to 12. I decided to put the starters back in for the last three minutes to finish them off.”
Fleetwood went 5-for-6 from the free throw line. Maddox led in points with 16 and Fleetwood had 14 points. Thomas added eight points.
Coach Pennamon said it was an “overall great T.E.A.M. Win!”
Next up for the varsity squads will be Elbert County on Friday, Jan. 11 on the road in Elberton.
Elbert leads the boys Region 8AA competition. Junior varsity girls begin at 4:30 p.m. and varsity tips off at 5:30 p.m. Coach Pennamon has said he is working an a game plan of trying to stick with the very athletic, fast and physical team.
On Saturday, the teams travel to rival Jackson. Both junior varsity squads play beginning at 3 p.m. and the varsity starts at 5 p.m.
The squads will travel to Social Circle Tuesday, Jan. 15 for competition that begins at 3:30 p.m. for the junior varsity and 6:30 p.m.