Tigers & Tigerettes grab two more 8AA games

Both the boys and girls basketball teams at Macon County High School grabbed two more district wins this past week.

Macon County opened the week with a home game against Livingston Academy. The Tigerettes came out a little sloppy against a much improved Lady Wildcat team that lost to the Tigerettes by 6 back in early December. With a 16-11 lead following the 1st period, Macon went on a short run and pushed their lead out to 38-25 at the break.  The Tigerettes got a little rattled and Livingston went on a run of their own, cutting the lead to 34-41 midway thru the 3rd period.  However, this young Tigerette squad showed some poise as they weathered the storm and pulled off a 71-61 Tigerette win by hitting just enough of their free throws down the stretch.

Scoring for the Tigerettes was: Keeley Carter 22, Jalynn Gregory 17, Kyndal Bullington 15, Abby Shoulders 12, Jamie Ashburn 2, Marah King 2, and McKaylee Mix 1. Morgan Carter played but did not score. This game would have been different had the Tigerettes done a bit better at the charity stripe, shooting 27 of 39 (69%).

The Tigers were out for a little revenge, after an overtime defeat at Livingston in early December and a two point loss in the Nera White Christmas championship to the Wildcats. Many Tiger faithful were a little surprised to see the Tigers jump out to an 8-0 lead to open the game. The Tigers were aggressively running down the floor and that evolved into a 39-25 halftime lead. Livingston came back out and decided to employ a full court press that forced some Tiger turnovers. A few missed shots here and a couple of turnovers there and the lead was cut to 49-44 heading into the final period. Livingston was able to get the deficit to 55-56 with just under three minutes to play. However a big 3-point shot from Cole Carnahan at the two minute mark, combined with a 6 of 7 performance from the charity stripe by Seth Carlisle in the closing few minutes, helped seal a 64-57 win for the Tigers.

Scoring for Macon was: Seth Carlisle 22, Heston King 13, Cole Carnahan 11, Spencer Hogin 7, Kelton Ballou 6, Riley Phillips 3, and Trent Cook 2. Cameron Welch played but did not score. The Tigers could have also made this a little bit different had they done better than their 15 of 27 (55%) showing at the free throw line.

Macon County would then travel to Smith County on Friday Jan 26th for another 8AA contest.  The Lady Owls are a little down this year and were no match for the Tigerettes. With a 22-10 lead after the 1st quarter, Coach White started subbing early in the 2nd quarter. Macon led 42-13 at the break and had a running clock much of the 3rd and 4th quarters. Final score 71-30 Tigerettes.

Scoring was: King 11, Mix, 11, Bullington 11, Keeley Carter 10, Gregory 7, Jamie Ashburn 7, Shoulders 6, Graci Scott 6, and Taylor Ward 2. Morgan Carter and Emily Ashburn played but did not score.

Some nights you just can’t do anything. That appeared to be the case for the Tigers as they came out and shot an abysmal 16% in the first quarter. They fell behind 8-16 after the 1st and were behind 22-29 at the break.  Then the game made a 180 degree turn-around. Macon scored five quick points in the 3rd quarter and went on a 14-2 run to take a lead that they wouldn’t give-up. After leading 38-33 heading into the final period, both teams went on a slump, both going over 3 minutes without scoring any points. The Tigers were able to hit 5 of 6 free throws in the final two minutes of the game to seal the win by a final score of 52-47. Macon finished the game shooting 39% from the floor and was able to convert a number of those shots inside the 3 point arc in the 2nd half.

Scoring was: Phillips 15, Carlisle 14, Carnahan 7, King 6, Welch 5, Ballou 3, and Cook 2. Hogin played but did not score.