GHSA hoops: Mary Persons loses standout; a look at Central Georgia's notable first-round matchups

By Michael A. Lough

The Sports Report

centralgasports@gmail.com
 

            In the span of a month, the high school careers of two of the state’s better boys basketball players ended.

            A month ago, Westside’s Khavon Moore suffered a leg injury against Central and underwent surgery a day later.

            And a day before the state tournament begins, Mary Persons’ Cam Holden joins him on sideline.

            Holden suffered a broken hand, apparently Thursday, as per a Tweet at 6:52 p.m. Thursday: “High school career ending early hurts me, but I promise that I will overcome all my injuries and come back stronger.”

            The Bulldogs have another day to adjust before welcoming Carver Columbus to Forsyth at 4 p.m. Saturday for a first-round GHSA Class AAAA basketball tournament game.

            Holden has missed time this year for injuries and a suspension, and the Bulldogs have responded. They are 23-4, with three losses coming to region rival and defending state champs Upson-Lee.

            But with Holden goes an awful lot of impact.

            He’s averaging 28.2 points, 10.4 rebounds, 3.9 assists and 3.9 steals a game. He had 35 points in last week’s 78-56 loss to Upson-Lee in the Region 2-4A tournament title game, the 11th time this season he cracked 30 points. In that game, he accounted for 62.5 percent of his team’s output and 37 percent of the Bulldogs’ boards with 13.

            And now Saturday’s game becomes, at least on paper, even more competitive.

            The Tigers, who are 6-2 on the road and 4-3 on neutral courts, have two losses to Alabama teams, one a Class 7A team and the other a 6A team. They lost twice each to region rivals Americus-Sumter (24-3) and Westover (21-6), then to Westover again in the region tournament plus to Class AA playoff team Spencer (20-7).

            The biggest margin of defeat was 8.

            The top girls game involving a Central Georgia team will be played just north of Rome, a bit of a ride from Eatonton.

            It pits Putnam County and Model, a pair of 20-win teams that are in both (SandysSpiel.com and Score Atlanta) top 10 polls, their positions swapped in each.

            Putnam County is amid a slight late-season slide, losing two straight, and thus doubling their losses for the season in less than a week. The seven-game winning streak stopped in the first round of the Region 8 tournament, 59-53 to Elbert County and followed up with a 53-47 loss to Rabun County in the consolation game.

            Model, on the other hand, has won 12 straight, with 11 points the smallest margin in that streak. The Blue Devils’ last loss was 54-51 to Class 5A Rome (23-5) on Dec. 22.

            Upson-Lee will likely need the homecourt advantage it will have with a girls/boys doubleheader on Friday, its game with Westover preceding the undefeated Knights’ boys game with Northside-Columbus in 4A action.

            This is the first home playoff game ever for Upson-Lee’s girls, who are 16-11 and off a stinging loss to Spalding in the Region 2 title.

            Westover of Albany is 20-7 and ranked in one poll. The Patriots are 7-4 on the road, but have lost four of their last five, by a total of 21 points. Two were to region champ Americus-Sumter – which hosts Perry – and one was to 26-1 Carver-Columbus, which welcomes West Laurens.

            Some area teams on the road have at least a fair shot to come home with a win.

            In 6A, Northside is 18-9 and visits 14-12 Glynn Academy.

            The Eagles of second-year head coach Ashleigh Fox will have to pick things up a bit, however, beating Houston County by only 6 in the region tournament to break a four-game losing streak. On the other hand, all four losses were to quality teams in the postseason: 2A Bleckley County, 3A Central and region foes Coffee (in OT) and Valdosta.

            All of Northside’s losses are to playoff teams. Glynn Academy is only 6-5 at home. Sophomore Zoesha Smith returned on Feb. 5 after nearly two months of not playing, and has averaged 14.3 points in nine games, getting 8 points and 5 rebounds on her return. But she didn’t play the next two games.

            Tamia Sapp leads Northside with 14.3 points and 7.7 rebounds, while Kaliyah Little adds 10.4 points and Tamia Nelson 6.9 rebounds.

            Warner Robins (15-11) and Wayne County (15-8) have similar records, but Wayne County allows 12 fewer points a game while the Demons score almost 6 more points.

            All of the Demonettes’ losses have been to playoff teams, while the Yellow Jackets have one loss to a non-playoff team, in overtime to Class 2A East Laurens.

            There aren’t nearly as many intriguing matchups involving Central Georgia boys teams, after Carver-Columbus and Mary Persons.

            The Tigers are 20-8 and ranked only two spots behind the 23-4 Bulldogs in both polls. Two of Carver’s losses came to teams from Alabama, one against rival Spencer, and the rest against Region 1 playoff teams.

            Hancock Central is 13-12 and visits 15-12 Dooly County in a Class A public boys game.

            The Bobcats have only one loss to a non-playoff team, to 19-9 Terrell County, a Region 1-A team. Four losses came to higher-classification teams.

            Jar’Qavuious Brown and his 21.2-point average have drawn increasing college attention, and Zeff Felton averages a double-double average with 11.1 points and 11.3 rebounds.

            Hancock Central’s lone loss to a non-playoff team was to 15-10 Greene County in mid-December.