Canes Fall To No. 1 Crawford
Crawford County came to town Tuesday as the undefeated #1 seed on the region 4-AA boys side and that ranking was still intact when they returned home.
The Canes varsity squad was defeated 70-61 as they played their first game without the team’s leading rebounder and often lead scorer for the season, De’Miria Glover. He suffered a bone fracture injury in his left hand during Saturday’s loss at Lamar County.
“We played well Tuesday and fought really hard against the #8 team in the state,” said head coach B.J. Thomas. “I was really impressed with the way our guys played especially without ‘D.’”
Quinton Standifer led the scoring with 25 points. C.J. Adams added 13 points and contributed six assists. Jakari Middlebrooks stepped up in the rebound department bringing down 17 while also earning 12 points.
Despite the loss, the Canes are still second in the region standings but will need to pull out victories in each of the coming region games.
The Lady Canes earned a 52-33 victory over Crawford Tuesday. Maya Stokes was the lead scorer with 22 points, her sister Morgan Stokes had 15, and Sheridan Tripp, 12 points.
The Crawford win places the Lady Canes solidly in fourth place of the region standings.
Hurricane basketball action over the weekend yielded good news and bad news. Both varsity squads earned a victory and suffered a defeat but more devastatingly the Canes lost a key player to injury for the remainder of the season just ahead of the region playoffs.
Wearing a cast now, Glover had a good game despite the 43-39 region loss at Lamar. He led the team in scoring with 13 points and had a hard on court tumble but didn’t realize the severity of his fall until hours later when headed back home.
“It’s hard to lose our leading rebounder and one of the top scorers so close to the end of the season but it happens,” commented Coach Thomas. “This is where the rest of the team steps up to absorb the loss. We’re all just glad its nothing more than a fracture.”
Adams had 9 points at Lamar, Middlebrooks had 4 points and 11 rebounds, and Standifer had 7 assists.
Fridays night’s non conference 74-68 win over Washington was welcomed. Glover was in his element earning another double-double which would turn out to be his last of this season. He garnered 25 points and 14 rebounds and joining him on the double-double boards was Middlebrooks who had 12 points and 14 rebounds. Standifer and Adams each had 11 points and Jordan Stone, 10.
“We had five players in double digits and we played OK but we could have played better,” noted the coach.
The Lady Canes managed one win over the weekend and it was the right win with a 38-33 defeat of region opponent Lamar County.
The varsity girls got out to a quick start outscoring Lamar 14-6 in the first quarter and carrying that momentum throughout the first half. Their pace slowed in the second half but the early lead was enough to seal the victory.
Tripp was the lead scorer with 12 points and Morgan Stokes added 7.
The loss came Friday at Washington where the Lady Canes went down 59-40. Unlike Saturday the squad came out slow to be outscored 39-20 in the first half. The pace was picked up in the second half as they matched the effort of Lamar but the deficit was too much to overcome.
Maya Stokes had 15 points and Tripp added 8.
The varsity squads will play their last three regular season games, which will all be region games, over the next week. They will host Macon County, tomorrow, Jan. 30 beginning at 6 p.m. with the girls and Bleckley County comes to town Tuesday, Feb. 3. The regular season will end in Eatonton at Putnam County High School on Friday, Feb. 6.