Wednesday, December 24, 2003

Panthers runnerup at Woodward

The Starr’s Mill Panthers basketball team finished second in Woodward Academy’s holiday tournament over the weekend, winning two of three games to improve their overall record to 5-6 on the season.

The Panthers opened play Friday night with a 54-48 win over Lovett, as Caleb Graham scored 17, Mike Mock added 14 and Andy Drum had 13. The Panthers then beat Woodward 65-46 in Saturday’s semifinal behind 19 points from Drum and 18 from Mock.

Monday night was the championship game, which Jonesboro won 74-59 over Starr’s Mill. Graham scored 19 and Drum added 13 in that effort.

Mock was named to the All-Tournament team.

The Panthers resume play Saturday in the Salem holiday tournament in Rockdale County.

The McIntosh Lady Chiefs finished a run of five games in nine days Saturday, letting one slip away to Southwest Atlanta Christian Academy 39-35. McIntosh started fast behind 3-point shooting from Joni Vickers and led until the fourth quarter before running out of steam.

Ultimately, free throws made the difference in the foul-plagued contest. SACA hit 17 of 30 from the charity stripe while McIntosh could only manage 8 of 16. Brittany Flowers led all scorers with 23 for SACA. Vickers had 10 for the Chiefs.

Just as they did Friday night against Fayette County, the Lady Chiefs mysteriously went ice cold for a whole quarter. At Fayette, the Lady Tigers opened fast and built a12-point lead in the first quarter. McIntosh rallied behind break away layups by Kristen McKillop and Andrea Lowery, but then the deep freeze set in. McIntosh went 10 minutes without scoring, including the entire third quarter and managed only 4 points in the second half. In the end Fayette County won in workmanlike fashion 45-22.

In the other games during the busy week, McIntosh sandwiched a win over Landmark between losses to Newnan and East Coweta.

McIntosh coach Steve Kidd has been pleased with the girls’ effort on defense, but cites poor free throw shooting and a need to make better decisions on offense. The Lady Chiefs are only hitting about 50% of their free throws on the season. And except for a 25-point first quarter against Landmark, the McIntosh girls are averaging less than 9 points per quarter for the past 5 games.

Senior Haynes Kleimeyer has carried most of the scoring load. Key players Vickers and Christa Mann have battled flu-like illnesses and McKillop was slowed for awhile by an ankle sprain.

The Lady Chiefs have plenty of time to heal and rest as they don’t return to action until Jan. 6 when they host Lovejoy.

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