By Nick Nunn
Staff Writer

The Morgan County High School (MCHS) Junior Varsity (JV) boys and varsity boys and girls played Cedar Shoals and Putnam County this week, coming out with five wins total and only one loss when the Cedar Shoals girls varsity outscored Morgan County.
The JV boys team began their season this week with a 53-33 victory over the Cedar Shoals Jaguars.
Because Morgan County’s offense was remarkably productive, they was able to outscore the Jaguars in each quarter except the last.
Being the JV team’s first game, Coach Jonathan Nelson noticed excitement in his players.
“It was good for the kids to finally get to play against someone else besides themselves,” began Nelson. “They were excited & ready to go when I came in to speak with them pregame.”
“I thought the kids played very hard. Offensively, we had a good rhythm all game.  Defensively, as a group, we rebounded the ball and defended the perimeter and interior well.”
Although the JV boys were also able to come out ahead of Putnam County 46-24, Nelson wasn’t happy with the boys’ performance in the first half of the game.
“I felt as though we were too relaxed to start the game off and throughout the first quarter,” said Nelson. “Our defensive intensity was not where it needed to be. From the beginning of the second quarter... we held them to 13 points through the last three quarters.  So I'm very happy with the effort and toughness they showed.”
The varsity girls suffered a tough 44-13 loss against Cedar Shoals earlier in the week.
Coach Joshua Reeves attributed the loss to a lack of offense, in particular, with difficulties the team had with being able to drive down the court effectively.
In the first half of the game, Morgan County was able to hold on, keeping the game close, but the Jaguars’ offense was able to boom in the second half, leaving Morgan County behind.
Neither of those problems presented during the girls’ game against Putnam County last Saturday. Both teams were neck-and-neck the entire time, and, in the final seconds of the game, with the score tied at 41-all, it looked like the game would be heading into overtime.
Putnam County had the ball with less than 30 seconds left in the game, when a personal foul was called against Sydney Nash, which game Putnam a chance to break ahead, but Putnam’s free throws were missed, and Morgan County got the ball.
A suspect traveling call against Morgan County game Putnam the ball back with 16 seconds to go, but another turnover gave Morgan County the ball on a throw-in in their own territory with only seven seconds left in the game.
After coming in bounds, the ball was passed around the three-point line for a couple of seconds, before, inexplicably, the ball was passed back to Nash at the half-court line.
With no time left, Nash put the ball into the air just before the buzzer sounded.
The ball traveled half the length of to the court before falling through the net, giving Morgan County three points and a spectacular end to the game.
Morgan County’s varsity boys had a productive week as well, beating Cedar Shoals 58-49 and Putnam County 63-49.
Cedar Shoals, far behind the varsity boys in second half, began fouling Morgan County in an attempt to slow their offense.
However, the Jaguars repeatedly made the mistake of fouling Tookie Brown, who went eleven for twelve at the line against Cedar Shoals. Brown’s foul shots alone made up almost one-fifth of Morgan County’s total offense for the night.
In Putnam County on Saturday night, Morgan County’s tallest players, CJ Turman and Josh Sallette suffered a couple of questionable calls at the hands of the officials.
During the first half of the game against Putnam County, the War Eagles’ fast offense, which was aggressive in the paint, drew two back-to-back pushing fouls against Turman and Sallette, which were suspect in the eyes of some of the fans in the stands.
“Just because they’re big doesn’t mean they’re fouling,” shouted one irate fan at the officiating committee.
Nevertheless, Morgan County came out ahead by 14 points and were able to score 66% of their free throws during the night.
This week, MCHS’ basketball teams will be traveling up to Hart County on Tuesday and East Jackson on Friday for their first region games of the season.
Also, the varsity boys’ team will be playing Greater Atlanta Christian this Saturday at the GAC Showcase at 6:30 p.m.

Printed in the December 13, 2012 edition