By Nick Nunn
Staff Writer

Last week, the MCMS basketball teams took on the teams from Social Circle and Monticello. The girls’ team won both of their games for the week, but, although the boys beat Social Circle 42-20, they lost to Monticello 29-36.
The wins against Social Circle were both hard fought; Social Circle’s tight defense kept the scores of both games relatively low and forced several turnovers. However, Social Circle wasn’t able to score often in either game, which was responsible for their 14-27 loss.
Whereas Morgan County was only able to score in the double digits in one quarter of the game (10 points in the fourth quarter), Social Circle was never able to score more than five points in a quarter, even scoring none in the second quarter.
Tatyana Davis led the team with 10 points during the game, and Salina Fortune had an additional six.
“We did a better job of playing together as a team, moving the ball on offense and helping each other out defensively,” added Coach Brian Cousins. “Social Circle is the most improved team in our league and we were able to handle the constant defensive pressure.”
The defense from MCMS’ boys team also kept Social Circle in the single digits for scoring per quarter, and a 15-point quarter by Morgan County just before the half put the game well out of reach for Social Circle early in the game.
Anthony Cooper’s success at the free throw line, where he made six out of six attempts, made up the better part of his eight-point scoring total from the game.
The girls had a fantastic game against Monticello both offensively and defensively, which resulted in a 39-10 victory.
“We played as a team, on both sides of the ball,” said Coach Cousins. “Holding Monticello to only 10 points shows that everyone was really focused and played defense together.” 
Despite a valiant effort by the boys against Monticello, they lost the match-up 29-36, giving up the one-point lead that they had built up through the end of the third quarter by scoring three points to Monticello’s 11 points in the last six minutes of gameplay.
“Coming into this game the kids knew they could beat Monticello,” said Coach Milfred Franklin. “The only thing that was a difference maker was going one for 11 on the free throw line.” 
However, Franklin witnessed in the boys’ performance an improvement that he has awaited the entire year.
“The way we played during this game is what I've been looking for from them all season,” said Franklin. “Now the players realize what it takes to win and what kind of effort they must bring night in and night out. I feel that we are gaining the momentum needed to make a deep run in the playoffs.”  
This week, the MCMS basketball teams play their final regular season games of the year. Wednesday was their final home game, which was played against Loganville, and they will play Carver away this Friday.

Printed in the January 24, 2013 edition.