AMERICUS —
The Americus-Sumter High School girls and boys basketball teams each faced a very tough Monroe High School team in their home openers on Friday night. Each team knew they would have to bring their best effort to the court to earn their first victory of the season, but a win was not in the cards for either team as the boys dropped a 61-45 loss following the Lady Panthers tough 61-50 loss.
For the second game in a row the Lady Panthers had to fight off a slow first half start for a late shot at the victory. The Americus-Sumter girls slow first half sent them to the locker room for the halftime break trailing Monroe 38-18 with only two periods left. For the second week in a row, however, the Lady Panthers outscored their opponent in the second half and had a late chance to take the victory. After outscoring their opponent by nine points in the second half, Americus-Sumter will again try to improve on their late game momentum following the 61-50 loss.
Kayla Bowens led the Lady Panthers with 13 points, and also had four steals and two assists. Tanyelle Hill also had 13 points for the Lady Panthers and nearly completed a double-double with eight rebounds. Kahler Fletcher was the Lady Panthers last double-digit scorer after tossing in 12 points, and A’Braylor controlled the boards with a team-leading 12 rebounds.
Americus-Sumter head coach Evelyn Wright was again disappointed with her team’s slow start, but said that the Lady Panthers did show improvement for the second game in a row. “We played much better and just fell short,” she said. “We have got to get out of this slump of not playing well in the first half. We get really good streaks going, but we have had too many turnovers so that is something that we have to work on.”
Following the Lady Panthers tough loss, the Americus-Sumter boys team took their home court for the first time this season. The Panthers were also hampered by a slow start, but after quickly falling behind 10-0 the boys fought back to trail only 24-19 at the halftime break. Unfortunately for the Panthers, the game would get away from them in the fourth period as Monroe slowly pulled away to claim a 61-45 victory and drop the Panthers early season record to 0-2.
Mike Russell had a big game for the Panthers by sinking nine points, followed by Xavier Willis and Michael Volley with eight points.
Panther coach Michael Coley said that his team must find more offensive consistency to be successful in the coming games. “We started off slow but we got back into the game. To be successful we have got to find more offensive fluidity,” Coley said. “We need to adjust to game speed because we are getting what we want, we just aren’t able to convert the baskets.”
This week, the Panthers will be selling season passes that are good for all regular season home games for just $50. Anyone interested in purchasing season tickets must pick them up at the school before Thursday at the front office.
The girls and boys teams will play on the road at Westover on Tuesday before returning home on Friday to take on the Worth County Rams and Lady Rams. The girls games will begin at 6 p.m. on both days with the boys games following immediately after.
Local Sports
Americus-Sumter basketball teams fall to 0-2 with losses to Monroe
- Local Sports
-
-
Lady Jets’ Portia McCray signs with Lander University
South Georgia Technical College Lady Jets sophomore guard Portia McCrary has signed a letter of intent to play basketball with Lander University, a small public university located in Greenwood, South Carolina, for the 2013–2014 season. Lander University plays in the Peach Belt Conference.
-
Leonard Pope Kids Day provides fun, laughter
On Saturday, June 15 children from across Sumter County descended on the Sumter County Fairgrounds to participate in the 7th Annual Leonard Pope Kid’s Day. Just as he does every year, Pope hosts the event as a way to get kids active by providing fun activities and entertainment for the children at no cost.
-
Marion County standout kicker A.J. Wells commits to Appalachian State
A long recruiting process came to an end on Tuesday for Marion County senior place kicker and punter A.J. Wells. After completing a recent visit to Appalachian State University in Boone, NC. Wells had seen all he needed to see to make his college choice. Following his senior year at Marion County this season, Wells will don the black and gold as Mountaineer on the Appalachian State football team.
-
SGTC Lady Jets sign Kadejah Saunders
South Georgia Technical College Lady Jets head basketball coach James Frey signed Kadejah Saunders from Tarpon Springs, Florida to be a member of the South Georgia Technical College Lady Jets 2013–2014 basketball team.
-
Dwight Harris Boys Club promotes active summer time lifestyle
Four years ago, Dwight Harris noticed that many of the area’s local youth were cruising the streets and finding their way into trouble during the summer months between school years. Rather than looking the other way, Harris decided to make a difference by creating a summer time activity for local boys of all ages and races to participate in. In the summer of 2009 he began the Dwight Harris Boys Club of Americus, Inc. as a youth development program to give children a fun activity to keep them off the streets and bridge the local racial gap.
-
GSW's Gahman named PING All-Region
Georgia Southwestern men's golfer Nate Gahman was named to the NCAA Division II PING All-Region Southeast Team on Friday afternoon by the Golf Coaches Association of America.
-
Lady ‘Cane Mollie McGowan earns Academic All-District Cross Country honors
Mollie McGowan, a senior on the Georgia Southwestern women's cross country team, has been named to the 2012-13 Capital One Academic All-District III Women's Track & Field/Cross Country Team.
-
Local runners dominate ‘Loop the Lake’ 5k at Georgia Veterans Park
On Saturday runners from several southern states converged on Georgia Veterans Memorial State Park in Cordele for a run to benefit the GraceWay Recovery Residence in Albany, Georgia. GraceWay is a non-profit, faith-based, long-term substance abuse/addiction treatment community for women, and the ‘Loop the Lake’ run around Lake Blackshear was organized to raise funds for this great cause.
-
Star Racing brings home a win from Englishtown
Sovereign-Star Racing’s Michael Ray claimed his second career victory in his first final round appearance of 2013 at the Toyota NHRA Summernationals at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park in Englishtown, N.J., this past weekend.
-
Hughes highlights postseason awards with All-State selection
Dillon Hughes made sure that he put an exclamation point on the end of a stellar baseball career at Southland Academy during his senior season. Hughes was recently selected to the 2013 GISA Class AAA All-State Team following a monster year, capping off postseason honors that included three All-Region 3-AAA selections and two Region 3-AAA Honorable Mention selections.
- More Local Sports Headlines
-
