Wednesday, February 26, 2003
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Wednesday, February 26, 2003 |
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Fayette Middle nearly wins MMSAL tournament By MICHAEL
BOYLAN The Fayette Middle School basketball team finished what Coach Jason Barnes considers to be a Cinderella season. Last year, as seventh graders, the team went winless and never lost by less than 10 points. The team lost their starting point guard and center and things were not looking too good when their eighth grade season began. The team lost their first game by 27 points, lost their shooting guard for three weeks and had their coach serve a two game suspension before Christmas break. Their record at the halfway point was 1-6. In the second half of the season, things began to come together. The team went 3-4 and lost their last game of the season by two points, after trailing by 15 points in the fourth quarter. They entered the Metro Middle School Athletic League tournament as the ninth seed out of 11 teams. In the first game, a play-in game to see which team would make the tournament, Fayette Middle defeated Henry County 37-21. The win put them up against the top seed in the tournament, Eagle's Landing, and Fayette Middle upset them 43-40. In their next game, they knocked off fourth seeded Whitewater 44-36. Only 10 days before, Whitewater had defeated Fayette Middle by 17 points. Fayette Middle had made the championship game against Luella Middle School. Fayette Middle trailed by two at the half and found themselves down by 10 in the third quarter. The team rallied but came up short, losing 42-39. Jacob Thomas, who averaged 15.5 points a game, was named to the All-Tournament first team, while Derek Walker was named to the the third team for outstanding defense. Other team members include Brandon Boykin, David Buchannan, Braden Buckner, Desmond Curry, Markus Fulks, Rashid Hollis, David GasQuez, Ryan Kennedy, Andre Owens, Josh Rape, Brandon Rassier, Tony Thompson and Collin Wooddy.
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