Wednesday, February 26, 2003
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Wednesday, February 26, 2003 |
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Tigers, Patriots eliminated from state tourney By MICHAEL
BOYLAN The state basketball tournament was not kind to the two boys teams representing Fayette County. The Fayette County Tigers and the Sandy Creek Patriots were both eliminated in first round play on Friday night, ending both team's seasons. Beach led the Tigers for the entire game. Beach built a 12-8 lead at the end of the first quarter and stretched that lead to 24-14 with a minute remaining in the half. Fayette County was being out rebounded and outhustled by Beach and had a tough time responding to Beach's pressure defense. The Tigers trailed 27-16 at the half and found themselves down 39-18 with two minutes remaining in the third quarter. In the final 10 minutes of the game, the Tigers made a rally, outscoring Beach 27-17. It wasn't enough however and the Tigers lost 56-45. Sandy Creek had a poor night shooting and rebounding against Statesboro, a team ranked third in the state, which only lost once in the regular season before losing twice in the region tournament. Though the Patriots had a height advantage, Statesboro was quicker and won 65-47. Aaron Caruthers scored 16 points and pulled in four rebounds and Kevin Craig added 13 points and eight rebounds. Cocah Maurice Triche was proud of his team's accomplishments. The team finished with a 19-11 record and won the region 4-AAAA championship. They will graduate three players and next season will have six seniors and seven juniors, all with a taste of a region title and the state tournament.
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