Basketball ‘Canes End Season

The Lady Canes ended their season with a loss to Elbert Monday during the 8AA region tournament but the Canes defeated Oglethorpe Tuesday to advance to the semifinals Thursday.

The Lady Canes had their season come to a close with a 60-51 loss Monday in the first round of region playoffs. It was a must win situation for the varsity squad as they battled for the fourth seed in the region against Elbert, a team the ladies were tied with last week at 6-6 in region play. The loss pushed them to fifth place and out of advancement to the state playoffs.

On Friday during the last regular season game, the Lady Canes fell 60-43 to the Lady War Eagles of Putnam.

Tuesday went better for the Hurricanes as the boys soundly defeated Oglethorpe 95-71 to advance to the semifinals today, Feb. 8 at Putnam County High School. The squad faced off at 5:30 p.m. against Banks County, currently seeded second behind Elbert County. The game should prove to be entertaining, the Canes have had two close losses to the reigning region champs this season but the Canes have some momentum heading into the semifinals following wins Tuesday and last Friday over Putnam. The ‘Canes were unable to pull it out, and lost the game.

Today’s boys and girls semifinal action and tomorrow’s finals will be hosted by Putnam County High School. A win today places the Canes in the finals against the winner of Elbert vs. Rabun.

Against Oglethorpe, Malik Crawford led the scoring with 28 points. Jay Fleetwood scored 23 points, Ashton Bonner had 16 points, and De’Ivion Lawrence added 13 points.

Following the conclusion of the region tournaments, the Georgia High School Association (GHSA) will begin the state playoffs as the top four teams of each region advance.

The first round of state will be held Friday, February 16 and Saturday, February 17; the second round will be Wednesday, February 21 and Thursday, February 22; and the third round will be held Tuesday, February 27 and Wednesday, February 28.