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.

This week saw some winter weather hit our area. Despite the snow and ice Macon County managed to play both of their district contests.

With the Tuesday game moved Macon played at home against York on Friday Jan 19th. Being the first game in a week the Tigerettes were quick to kick the rust off their game. They pushed to a 15-8 lead after the first quarter and doubled-up the Lady Dragons 34-16 at the break. Coach White started mixing and matching his starters and bench in the 3rd quarter before getting everybody in the game in the 4th quarter. The Tigerettes take their foot off the gas and coast to a 71-41 victory.

Scoring was: Keeley Carter 20, Jalynn Gregory 17, Marah King 12, Jamie Ashburn 5, Abby Shoulders 5, McKaylee Mix 5, Emily Ashburn 3, Kyndal Bullington 2, and Taylor Ward 2. Graci Scott and Morgan Carter played but did not score.

The Dragons came into Nera White Gymnasium as the leaders in boy’s conference play so far this season. However, both of these teams showed a little rust from not playing in a while. After a sloppy 1st quarter, and a 17-14 MCHS lead, York came back to take a 29-27 lead at the break. Macon would fall behind by eight points mid-way thru the 3rd before cutting it to 45-46 heading into the final quarter. The Tigers simply made the plays they needed and hit their free throws down the stretch to wring out the win. Final score Tigers 66 Dragons 59.

Scoring was: Seth Carlisle 25, Spencer Hogin 14, Heston King 8, Riley Phillips 5, Cameron Welch 5, Trent Cook 4, Kelton Ballou 3, and Cole Carnahan 2. Lake Reid played but did not score.

The game scheduled at DeKalb County was moved to Saturday Jan 20th in Smithville. The Tigerettes fell behind and trailed 15-17 after the first period. However they would come back and tie the game 33-33 heading into the break. Then the Tigerettes upped their game. Outscoring DeKalb 13-5 and 20-13 in the final two quarters, the Tigerettes grabbed the win by a final score of 66-51 to remain in 2nd place in district 8AA.

Scoring was: Keeley Carter 28, Abby Shoulders 11, Kyndal Bullington 9, Jalynn Gregory 9, Marah King 4, Jamie Ashburn 3, and McKaylee Mix 2. Morgan Carter played but did not score.

The Tigers fell behind as well in the 1st period 11-12 to DeKalb. Then a few turnovers and some made baskets pushed DeKalb to a seven point lead 34-27 at the break. Macon never could seem dig out of that hole. Even though they held DeKalb to 5 points in the 4th quarter, they only scored 6 themselves and lost by a final score of 52-56.

Scoring was: Carlisle 13, King 13, Cook 7, Ballou 6, Hogin 5, Phillips 3, Carnahan 3, and Welch 2.

Coming back from the holiday break, Red Boiling Springs had two great games against Gordonsville.

 

The Red Boiling Springs Lady Bulldogs decided that they had to start playing defense and then went out and held Gordonsville to only 8 points and they won going away by a final score of 49-8. This game was never close as the Lady Bulldogs jumped out to a 10-0 first quarter lead and increased their lead to 25-2 by halftime. Liz Anderson led the Lady Bulldogs in first half points with 10 followed by Haley Davis with 8 points while Kennedy Fleming scored 7 points.

 

Gordonsville is in a big time rebuilding year and they are hoping to get some players back from injuries by tournament time. They need those injured kids in order to be competitive.

 

 The Lady Bulldogs played everyone as they went on to claim a 49-8 victory. Scoring totals were: Davis15 points, Anderson 12 points, Fleming 11 points, Briley Morgan 5 points, Bailey Morgan 4 points, Hayley McCarter and Iesha Smith both finished with 1 point. A very important stat that is worth mentioning is the Lady Bulldogs hit 15 for 15 from the free throw line.

 

The boys game was close as the Tigers played hard and trailed 14-12 after the first quarter but the Bulldogs led at halftime 35-23. Dalton Marsh scored 22 first half points and 37 total for the game and if you throw in 18 rebounds he had a great night. For some strange reason Gordonsville did not double team Marsh.

 

The Bulldog defense was outstanding holding the Tigers to only seven points in the third quarter and led in rebounds for the game 34-16. One major factor in this win was the scoring punch of Marsh's teammates who totaled 36 points and a season high total in assists with 24.The Bulldogs turned the ball over only 13 times while forcing 21. The Bulldogs are starting to play as a team and when they do that then wins will be in their future. Final Score Bulldogs 73 Tigers 48.

 

Scoring totals for the Bulldogs: (besides Marsh)Mason Hix 8 points and played great defense, Jordan Powell and Hunter Kirk who scored 13 points between them, James Sampson 6 points, Dalton Thompson 4 points, Matthew Murphy 3 points, and Kendall Thompson had 2 points.

Following the Christmas break, Macon County is back in basketball action. They faced two district opponents.

 

On Tuesday Jan 9th Macon County travelled to Woodbury to face Cannon County. The Tigerettes came out ready to play as they scored 18 and 26 points in the first two periods to lead 44-25 at the break. Macon went on to coast to a 78-51 win.

 

Scoring was: Keeley Carter 19, Jalynn Gregory 16, Marah King 11, Jamie Ashburn 10, Abby Shoulders 9, McKaylee Mix 9, and Kyndal Bullington 4. Emily Ashburn, Morgan Carter, Graci Scott, and Taylor Ward all played but did not score.

 

The Tigers must have made a little merry as they came out a bit rusty to begin 2018, being behind 5-9 after the 1st period. They played a bit better but still weren’t shooting very well and led 16-15 at the break. They outscored Cannon 18-8 in the 3rd period and hung on to win by a final score of 43-33.

 

Scoring was: Seth Carlisle 13, Heston King 12, Trent Cook 6, Cameron Welch 5, Spencer Hogin 5, and Riley Phillips 2. Cole Carnahan and Kelton Ballou played but did not score.

 

With a chance of weather a date that many had circled was moved up to Thursday Jan 11th. The Tigerettes hosted Upperman, who happened to be the #1 ranked girls team in AA state wide. After falling behind 0-6 Macon scrapped their way to a deficit of 10-16 after the 1st quarter. They managed to cut the Upperman lead to 3 with two minutes left in the half after trailing by 10 points twice in the first half. At the half Macon trailed 22 -26 with a half-court shot sunk at the buzzer by Keeley Carter.  The Tigerettes took their only lead at 31-30 with 5:45 left in the 3rd. Then the 2017 AA Ms Basketball, Akira Levy, took over the game. She scored 12 of her game high 36 points in the 3rd and willed her team to win. The Tigerettes simply could not come back and were defeated 57-66.

 

Scoring was: Keeley Carter 15, Bullington 12, Gregory 11, Shoulders 7, Jamie Ashburn 7, Morgan Carter 3, and King 2. Mix played but did not score.

 

The Tigers almost gave one away. Both teams played some decent basketball and Macon trailed 13-14 and 24-26 after the first two periods. The Tigers made a run midway thru the 3rd but Upperman countered. Heading into the final quarter trailing 34-36, the Tigers found an inside spark. King came alive on the block and staked Macon to an 8 point lead with 3 minutes to go. With fouling their only resort Upperman cut the lead to 6, then 4, then 1. The Tigers shot 2 for 10 from the free throw line down the stretch and barely squeaked by for the win by a final of 51-47.

 

Scoring was: King 17, Carlisle 10, Hogin 6, Phillips 5, Carnahan 5, Welch 4, Ballou 3, and Trent Cook 1.