Lady Elephants on a roll

The Gainesville basketball girls are one of the hottest teams in northeast Georgia right now. Rated number eight in AAA and number 15 overall in the state, the Lady Elephants carry a seven game win streak into North Forsyth Friday night (AM 1240, WGGA).

"I think we're doing pretty good right now," said Lauren Niles of Gainesville. "The last game we played we can improve on a lot. But as far as playing as a team and working hard, I think we're doing good."

Freshman guard Meg Henson says the Lady Elephants are making their move.

"We'll keep practicing hard, and we'll keep continuing to improve," Henson said. "We just need to take care of business first and beat North Forsyth, and just be prepared for every day."

Coach Manson Hill agrees with the concept of first-things-first in this region contest, but admits it's tough not to look ahead to a showdown with Fannin County, ranked fourth this week in AAAA.

"We're hoping to go in there and do a good job up there, so that we can stay in the hunt," Hill said."'Cause we really don't want to be sitting there with that one loss before next Friday night. We're trying not to look at a week from Friday night, but it's out there. It's something we're working for, and we want to be ready when Fannin comes in here."

Virgil Amey's GHS boys hope to avenge an earlier home loss this season to North Forsyth, a team they beat twice last year, although it went to overtime in Coal Mountain.

"They have our number...they're gonna be up for that again, " Amey said. "We gotta find somebody to give us some points. It's gonna be extremely tough. We gotta keep 'em off the boards. They're just a strong, solid basketball team."

Amey says Sharaud Curry, Brent Benson, and others will have to step up until leading scorer Brandon Sims can return from a knee injury.

"Unless we can get some defensive turnovers and score layups, we're gonna have some problems," Amey said. "It boils down to defensive intensity, once we get that, I think we can play with anybody in the state of Georgia."

Elsewhere Friday, East Hall hosts Dawson County (WDUN- Newstalk 550); Johnson hosts Fannin County; North Hall hosts Habersham Central; West Hall is at Cedar Shoals; Lakeview hosts Jefferson; and Buford is at Rabun Gap.

On Saturday, the Region 8 cheerleading championships in all classes will be held at Dawson County's Ford Phillips gym.