GAINESVILLE - The Red Elephants basketball team had little trouble Tuesday night with Gilmer County's Bobcats, winning the first round of the Region 7-AAA tournament 81-54. The Elephants, who will face Johnson Friday afternoon, have qualified ,along with the Knights, to move on next week to the second round of the state tournament.
Gainesville jumped off to a 32-10 first quarter lead and never looked back, pushing the halftime advantage to 45-24. The score was 63-41 at the end of three quarters as reserves mopped up the 81-54 win.
Micah Owings led Gainesville in scoring with 15 points, followed by Sharaud Curry with 13 and Brent Benson with 10 points. Freshman Tyler Musselwhite had 9 points, all coming in the second half.
"Kind of a tough game mentally for us, getting into the first half " said Elephant coach Virgil Amey. " but I thought we did a great job executing on our defensive end; and did a great job of just sharing the ball.(We) had a coupla team assists. The team just did a great job. I'm proud of 'em."
Earlier in the day, Johnson defeated Forsyth Central's boys 55-43 to set up Friday's 5:30 p.m. match-up with Gainesville. Both teams will move on to next week's second round, also to be played at the Gainesville gym.
Elsewhere in the area, White County eliminated the East Hall Lady Vikings 48-40, Habersham Central dropped the West Hall Lady Spartans 60-42.
"You can't turn the ball over and expect to win," said Lady Spartan coach, Steve Sweat."We had way too many turnovers, I felt like. I felt like our hustle was okay on defense. We'd steal the ball, or make them turn it over and then just give it back to 'em."
West Hall's girls scrambled all year to replace four starters and ends the season at 10-15.
"I guess we get spoiled and we don't like to have them kinda years," Sweat added. "We felt like if we could go .500 or better that we would have had a good year, and we came up a little short."
In 8-AAAA boys' play, the North Hall Trojans dropped West Hall's Spartans 63-60.
North Hall boys' coach Greg Williams was nearly beside himsefl with excitement after watching his Trojans overcome a double-digit deficit in the fourth quarter for their first lead of the game and then go on to win by three points.
"Aw, they just showed so much tremendous heart, " Williams said. "They just would not die. I gotta give my little freshman credit, Robby(Hamilton). He just came out(and) played like a warrior. Lija (Farr) played big. Ryan (Franklin) would not lose this game; and Jared (Gray) and Matt (Edge) just would not lose. I feel like I'm in a dream right now. I can't believe we won the game."
Franklin scored 24 points to become North Hall's career scoring leader. Farr was also in double figures with 15. Javon Randolph with 20 and Martrez Milner with 15 led West Hall, which finished the season at 14-12, ten more wins than they had last season.
"I just love these guys," Williams continued. "i'm so proud of 'em. I'm so proud of 'em. It's tough right now; we're so emotional."
North Hall (15-10) will take on Central Gwinnett at Central Friday night at 8:30. The Black Knights eliminated Habersham Central's boys 66-47 Tuesday night.
East Hall's Viking boys walloped Towns County 106-48.
"We played well," said Viking coach Seth Vining.
In other boys' AAA playoff action from around northeast Georgia, Winder-Barrow beat Elbert County 54-43. Also, South Forsyth beat Pickens County 72-56, and North Forsyth beat Fannin 46-25. In AA, Union County beat Dawson County 66-53 to set up a Friday meeting with East Hall at East Hall.
On the girls' side, defending single-A State Champ Jefferson beat up on Tallulah Falls 89-17. Also in class A, Buford eliminated Commerce 76-42. In AA, Dawson County beat Union County 51-46; while in AAA Stephens County upset Jackson County 53-43, and Franklin County knocked out Winder-Barrow 59-52
Tonight's girls action in 7-AAA includes Johnson-North Forsyth at 5:30 pm and defendng State Champion Gainesville taking on Gilmer County at 8:30 pm.
In 8-AAAA, North Hall's Lady Trojans will take on Oconee County at Cedar Shoals High.
Those three games can be heard on AM 1240-WGGA.
In single-A, the Lakeview boys (9-16) will open with 15th ranked Jefferson at Providence High at 5:30 PM Wednesday.
Wednesday
July 16th, 2025
10:09AM
