Wednesday, May 26, 2004

Lightning splits with Jackson Rage over weekend

By MICHAEL BOYLAN
mboylan@TheCitizenNews.com

The Jackson Rage had blasted the Southern Crescent Lightning 86-65 at Starr’s Mill High School earlier this year and the Lightning was definitely looking for revenge this past weekend.

The Lightning lost to Jackson 78-76 Friday. They trailed the Rage 23-20 after the first quarter and were behind by 10 at the half. The Lightning played a much better second half, outscoring Jackson in the third quarter 21-13 and tying them with 20 points a piece in the fourth quarter. Derrick Allen led all scorers with 21 points and 13 rebounds, while Marcus Taylor followed Allen with 20 points.

In Sunday’s game, the Lightning found themselves down 35-34 at the half. They took the lead by the end of the third quarter, outscoring Jackson 22-17. Lamont McIntosh, back from working out for the Atlanta Hawks, led the Lightning with 20 points and six rebounds. He was one of five Lightning players with double digit points.

The Lightning was scheduled to take on Raleigh last night and Bristol tonight before playing at home this weekend against Raleigh (7 p.m. Saturday) and Bristol (Sunday at 4 p.m.). At this weekend’s games, local pastors will compete for a chance to win $10,000 for their church’s youth group. At each game, six pastors will have a chance to make a series of shots, ending with a half court shot. The pastor or pastors who make all six of the shots will get $10,000 for their youth group. The Lightning will also be donating 25 percent of ticket sales to church members back to the youth groups of each participating church. So bring a church bulletin to the game to be sure you church receives its portions of donations. There will also be a prize awarded to the largest youth group from a single group at each game. Churches from Fayetteville and Brooks will be represented at Saturday’s game and churches from Peachtree City and Tyrone will be represented at Sunday’s game. Pastors and churches must be pre-registered to qualify for the shoot-out and to receive 25 percent of ticket sales with their bulletins.

There will also be pep rallies before each game. The pep rally before Saturday’s game will take place at Fuddruckers from 1-4 p.m. Saturday and the rally before Sunday’s game will last from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. at Atlanta Bread Company in The Avenue.

Visit www.wbalightning.com for more information.