By Nick Nunn
Staff Writer

The Morgan County Middle School (MCMS) basketball teams had another successful week, with boys and girls victories against Social Circle and a victory by the girls’ team against Putnam County. In the regular season, the girls now have a 4-0 record. The boys’, however, is now at 2-2.
Last Wednesday, the MCMS teams faced off against Putnam County at home.

The girls won their game 31-18 with Tatyana Davis leading the scoring with 18 points in the game. Autumn Woodard also earned six points for the team despite being one-for-five at the free throw line but managed to pick up eight rebounds.

“We played pretty well,” said Coach Brian Cousins about the victory against Putnam. 
“Putnam was much bigger than we were, but we were able to take advantage of them with our speed and our defensive pressure.  Our defensive often leads to lay-ups on the offensive end of the court.” 
However, Coach Cousins does see some areas in which the teams can stand to improve.

“We did struggle at the free throw line, only shooting 23 percent.  With that being the case, we are going to work on that at practice a lot over the next couple of weeks.  Overall, I was pleased with the girls intensity against a physical Putnam team.”

Failure to live up to the coaches’ standards was a theme that echoed in the boys’ game against Putnam as well.

“We did a very poor job as a team on the free throw line, going 3 for 16,” said Coach Milfred Franklin about the boys team’s 31-22 loss against Putnam.

Coach Milfred Franklin also credits the loss to an abundance of turnovers made by Morgan County during the game.

“We basically gave Putnam their offense when we turned the ball over because they either scored on the turnover or we fouled them and they went to the free throw line.”
According to Franklin, consistency is still the key to the development of MCMS’ boys team.
“We played very good defense in "spells" but not consistently enough to win the game,” said Franklin. “One thing we are still working on is our aggressiveness and toughness around the basket.”

Lamarcus Stokes led the team’s scoring with eight points and Willie Simmons came in close behind with six.

Both teams showed marked improvement during the games against Social Circle, which were won 41-27 by the girls and 49-22 by the boys.

From the very beginning, the girls’ game against Social Circle was fast-paced, which gave some of Morgan County’s players a chance to shine.

As the team maintained a 12-point lead into the half, Tatyana Davis had already scored 13 points against Social Circle. Davis would lead the scoring for the night with 23 points while also gathering up six rebounds.

The girls didn’t let up in the second half, eventually building a 14-point lead to close the game even though they were outscored 6-11 in the fourth quarter.

The boys’ offense was also explosive against Social Circle. The score was tied 17-all at the half, but Morgan County came out in the third quarter to score 27 points as opposed to Social Circle’s two points in the quarter, giving them a massive 25-point lead.

Dalton Cole, Willie Simmons and Lamarcus Stokes were the team’s leading scorers, with 10, nine and eight points, respectively, but the team’s ability to get their hand on rebounds was a big factor in the team’s success.

Eight members of the team had three or more rebounds during the course of the night, culminating with a total of 42.

This week, the MCMS basketball teams will face Monticello and Loganville’s middle schools. The games against Monticello were on Wednesday away and the Loganville games, which will take place on Friday, will also be away.

Printed in the December 13, 2012 edition