The HoCo basketball teams hosted county and region rival Northside earlier this afternoon and evening and the result was a Bears sweep with the girls winning 36-32 in a low-scoring contest and the boys pulling away in the fourth quarter to win 62-49.
The girls’ game stayed close throughout as the Lady Bears would lead 12-9 after one but the Lady Eagles were able to get the lead until late in the first half when the Black, Silver, and White took a 20-17 lead at halftime. These two teams continued to go back and forth as HoCo would lead 30-28 going into the fourth.
The fourth quarter would be a defensive slugfest as through the first six minutes of the fourth, Northside had scored only four pts while HoCo had yet to score any pts as they trailed 32-28 but the host ended the game on an 8-0 run which saw Kinley Snider make a 2 pt FG to give HoCo the lead 34-32 with :41.7 seconds remaining in the contest that would ultimately lead to a Lady Bears’ victory 36-32 to pick up their first region victory of the 23-24 season.
Jayla Holden led HoCo in scoring with 12 pts while Camiyah Hudson led Northside in scoring with 15 pts. The Lady Bears improve to 6-7 overall; 1-1 in region play while the Lady Eagles fall to 6-7 overall; 0-3 in region play (they are missing a score from Tuesday @ Lee Co).
The boys’ game also was relatively close for most of the game until the fourth quarter. The Eagles got out to a 9-2 lead before the Bears hit back-to-back threes via Kameron Plummer and Coby Salter to cut the gap down to 9-8 in favor of the visitors before Northside took a 12-8 lead after one quarter of play.
The host would tie the game during the second before the Eagles pulled away slightly to lead 28-24 at the half. Northside would score the second half’s first four pts to double their lead to eight before the Bears got on a 15-4 run to take a 39-36 lead into the fourth.
HoCo would take over in the fourth quarter by outscoring the Eagles 23-13 to pull away and win 62-49. The Bears were led in scoring by both Devan Robinson and Malachi Jackson with 13 pts a piece and Northside was led in scoring by Keron Milton with 17 pts followed by Chaston Brown with 14 pts.
HoCo improves to 9-7 overall; 2-0 in region play while Northside falls to 5-9 overall; 0-4 in region play. HoCo will host Tift Co next Tuesday while Northside will host Peach Co next Tuesday in a non-region contest.
Elsewhere; the Perry Panthers hosted county rival Veterans earlier this afternoon and evening and the result was a Warhawks sweep with the girls annihilating Perry 75-25 and the boys downing the Panthers 77-56. Veterans girls improve to 10-5 overall while the Perry girls fall to 2-7 overall (they are missing a score from playing @ West Laurens yesterday night).
The Veterans boys improve to 10-5 overall while the Perry boys fall to 2-9 overall. The Warhawks will return to region play next Tuesday when they travel to Leesburg to play Lee Co and the Panthers will also return to region play next Tuesday when they travel to Macon to play Howard.
