Chris Whitaker
AMERICUS — Americus-Sumter had a refocusing session on Wednesday after the Panthers were blown out by Bainbridge the night before.
The session seemed to work as the Panthers rebounded with a 60-42 win against Lee County at home Friday night.
Deonte Fulks led four Panthers in double figures with 14 points, and he dished out 10 assists as the Panthers play for the No. 2 seed in 1A-AAAA at home Tuesday against Thomas County Central.
Coach Michael Coley said he's not sure, however, if the two teams are tied, how the tiebreaker would be settled.
"I emphasized earlier to the guys this week that we're trying to get the highest seed we could, and we came out and played hard last night," he said. "We were disciplined defensively in spots, and we got out and ran the floor well."
Another emphasis for the Panthers has been scoring by committee. And for one of the few times this season, they got just that.
Jamarcus Stone and Tyler Moore each had a pair of 3-pointers in scoring 12 and 11 points, respectively, and Kyle Champion had one of his best games in the post scoring 10 points and grabbing eight boards.
"Kyle hit the boards and got a lot of shots, and Deonte broke down the defense dishing the ball off to Kyle," said Coley. "Tyler's been in a little slump, and he hit a few shots as well as Jamarcus — we've been looking for a lot of things from him. He got into a rhythm and carried us in the fourth quarter."
The Panthers led by 10 entering the final period before stretching the margin to 18.
Jacoby Mallory led Lee (4-17, 0-5) with 19 points, and after scoring 25 in their first meeting, Coley said they held Sanford Seay in check.
"He got in early foul trouble, and we were able to frustrate him," said Coley. "We put him in some bad situations. We left (Mallory), and he created a lot of shots and hit a lot of big shots."
The Lady Panthers fell to 7-16 overall and 0-5 in sub-region play with a 48-39 loss to Lee.
