Summer basketball in full swing with two-day sessions at Monroe, Lee County

ALBANY — Summer basketball was in full force Tuesday at Monroe High School at the start of a two-day high school basketball marathon. Sixteen schools from around the area are competing in a summer session hosted Tuesday at Monroe and Wednesday at the schools in Lee County.

While serious stats were not collected, serious basketball did take place. Possibly the most intense games involved Valdosta, which played hard-fought games with Americus-Sumter and Westover.

The Wildcats, who edged out Lee County for the Region 1-AAAAAA title last season, were on their fast and very physical game. To start the day, they took Americus-Sumter to the limit, but the Panthers pulled off a 50-49 win when Devon Dowdell swished a long 3-pointer with 10 seconds left to play.

In the second game, Valdosta was just as intense and Westover led 26-22 at the half, but Valdosta’s strong defensive play held the Patriots to only 11 second-half points and the Wildcats pulled off a 44-37 win.

Dougherty trailed Americus-Sumter at the half, but strong second-half play from Juwuan Jinks and Jaion Burns led the Trojans past the Panthers 42-36, The Trojans had only one game Tuesday.

Monroe had three games and the teams divided up with more experienced players on one team and the younger players on a second team. The older Tornadoes downed Cairo and the younger Tornadoes topped Mitchell County’s divided team, but lost a heartbreaker to Miller County.

In the Miller County game, the Tornadoes trailed 5-4 before going on a 14-0 run and then led the entire game until there were just 49 seconds remaining in the game when the Pirates got free throws. The Tornadoes responded with a basket to take the lead back, but Miller County won the game on a long 3-pointer with seven seconds remaining on the clock.

In the Mitchell County vs. Cairo game, the Syrupmakers started out quick with a 4-0 lead, but the Eagles started using a full-court press and went on a 15-4 run to take over the lead. They never let up and beat the Syrupmakers 65-44.

Mitchell County didn’t have that luck in the final game of the night against Westover. The Eagles couldn’t find the bottom of the basket in the first half and didn’t actually score for the first 18 minutes of the game. Westover led 18-4 at the half, but the Eagles looked much stronger in the second half and pulled back to a 43-33 final.

Joe WhitfieldJoe Whitfield

Joe Whitfield