Prep Roundup: Carver tops Westover without Isler, Lady Tigers blast #8 Westover

Westover High School basketball teams faced a tough weekend prior to the upcoming region tournaments with a Friday game at Carver in Columbus and hosting Americus-Sumter Saturday to end the regular season. Carver, Americus-Sumter, Dougherty and Westover are the four leaders in Region 1-AAAA and a tournament showdown at Carver this week could be won by any of the four in the boys brackets. The girls bracket is a lot more obvious after the Lady Tigers of Carver blasted the region’s number two team, Westover, 75-26. It was the biggest loss of the year for Westover who fell to 18-5. The top-ranked Lady Tigers are now a perfect 25-0.

Friday night in the Columbus the Patriots fell to the Carver Tigers 73-69, just a week or so after beating the Tigers by 20 points in Albany. One of Westover’s leaders and biggest scorers, Michael Isler, did not play. Even without Isler the Patriots took a 32-29 lead into the half. The Tigers came out hot in the third quarter, however, and outscored the Patriots 20-12 to take the lead. Backcourt seniors Jordan Brown and Antonio Jackson led the fourth quarter charge to try and come back, Brown drilled three three-pointers and hit another basket for 11 fourth-quarter points. Jackson hit a basket and nailed six free throws in a row in the final period. It was not enough, however, Carver’s AJ Watts also scored 11 points in the final period.

Brown led the Patriots with 21 points, followed by Jackson with 18. Michael Cooper dumped in 10 for the Patriots, while Shawn Davis contributed 10 and Isaac Abide scored eight. The loss means the Patriots (15-7, 9-5) will likely end up the fourth seed in the upcoming tournament. Tournament details will be posted as soon as they are available.

Also Friday night, Westwood and Terrell Academy battled in the final regular season game of the year in Camilla. The Lady Cats of Westwood took the g-46irls game 51-42 while the Eagles soared in the boys game to a 76-46 win over the Wildcats.

The Lady Cats opened up a 15-9 first quarter lead, but the Lady Eagles roared back in the second quarter to close the gap to 25-22 at the half. The teams scored about the same in the third quarter and the Lady Eagles were down by four heading into the final period. Westwood outscored Terrell Academy 19-10 in the final period to secure the win. Westwood’s Gracie Pollock led the Lady Cats with 19 points and 10 rebounds. Karlie Jones followed with 15 points and 15 rebounds, while point guard Brianna Thompson added 12 points at six rebounds.

In the boys game, the Eagles raced to an 18-5 advantage in the first quarter and never looked back. Matthews Ivey led the Eagles with 21 points. Cameron Jones added 18 and Nick Chambless had 12. John Dean Daniels led the Wildcats with 11 points.

Terrell Academy will host the GISA Region 1-AA in Dawson beginning Tuesday. The Lady Cats will face the winner of Crisp Academy and Southwest Georgia Thursday at 7 p.m. The Lady Eagles will take on Windsor Academy Thursday at 4 p.m. The Westwood Wildcats will play Southwest Georgia Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. The Eagles will play the winner of that game on Thursday at 8:30.

The Deerfield Windsor Knights and Lady Knights split games with Crisp Academy Friday night in Cordele. The Lady Knights brought home a 66-44 win over the Lady Wildcats, while Crisp won the boys game 65-59.

The Lady Knights used a balanced scoring attack to build a 34-20 halftime lead and were never threatened in the second half, though the Lady Wildcats played well in the second half. Nine different Lady Knights got into the scoring column Friday and were led by Rachel Bonner with 14 points. Caroline Speir added nine points and Lila Lanier scored eight for Deerfield Windsor.

The Knights hit nine three-pointers in the game and everyone on the team got into the game, except senior Ronald Bates who was unable to play because of a technical suspension. However, Crisp Academy poured in 24 second-quarter points to take a big first-half lead and then held on for the win.

Nick Dixon led the Knights with 20 points and Shamir Wingfield put in another 19 for Deerfield Windsor.

The Knights are the number two seed in next week’s GISA Region 1-AAA tournament at Georgia Southwestern in Americus. Deerfield will face Tift Academy Thursday at 5:30. The two teams split the regular season with Tift winning the first and Deerfield Windsor winning the second.

In Columbus, the Dougherty Trojans brought home a 76-71 win over Shaw. Leading only 32-30 the Trojans opened up the second half with a 22-0 run to pull out to a 54-30 lead in the third quarter before Shaw could even score. However, Shaw then scored the next 18 points – six straight three-pointers. The two teams battled back and forth in the final period and the Trojans held on for the region win. Individual scorers were not available.

Shaw’s Lady Raiders blasted the Lady Trojan 70-30.