GREENSBORO — The Towns County boys maintain their lead in Region 8-A Public with a dominating 59-21 road win over Lake Oconee Academy on Friday.
The Indians (16-3, 9-1 Region 8-A Public) jumped out to a 12-2 lead after the first quarter and then exploded for a 23-0 second quarter for a 35-2 halftime lead.
Towns County cruised from there. The Indians will travel to Greene County on Saturday.
GREENE COUNTY 71,
COMMERCE 67
The Tigers saw a golden chance to climb into third place in Region 8-A Public slip away.
It was a back-and-forth affair the entire game. Commerce (7-14, 5-5 Region 8-A Public) trailed 17-14 after the first quarter but rallied to take a 31-30 lead into halftime. Greene County tied the game at 51 by the end of the third quarter and used a late run to hold off the Tigers.
Ian McConnell paced Commerce with 27 points. Jackson Morris added 12 and Dudley Dickson 10 for the Tigers.
DAWSON COUNTY 75,
WEST HALL 36
The Tigers rallied from a 19-18 deficit in the first half and held West Hall to 10 points in the second half to blow past the Spartans and secure the No. 3 seed in next week's Region 7-3A tournament.
Jake Craft paced the Tigers with 28 points, while Joakeim Celestin added 21.
GAINESVILLE 64,
NORTH FORSYTH 42
The Red Elephants opened the game on a 12-2 run and never looked back in the win over North Forsyth on Senior Night at home.
Gainesville, behind Jimmie Jackson, Ced Nicely and Robert Reisman, blew open the game in the first quarter, 23-4, and led 31-8 with 5:30 left in the half.
Nicely scored 10 of his 13 points in the opening half to lead the Red Elephants scoring. Reisman, Sahmir King, Eli Pitts and Jackson scored 8 points each.
Aiden Kudlas led the Raiders with 15 points.
Gainesville has the tiebreaker over Denmark for the No. 2 seed right now, but the Danes can change that if they beat the Red Elephants on Monday.
CEDAR SHOALS 68,
FLOWERY BRANCH 44
The Falcons didn't have enough offense to fend off Cedar Shoals in the loss on Friday.
Flowery Branch led 14-10 after the first quarter, but Cedar Shoals outscored the Falcons 26-10 in the second quarter to take a 37-24 lead by half time.
The Falcons, however, closed the gap by the end of the third frame, 48-41, thanks to Trey Shaw and Jacobs Dixon who combined for 12 of the 17 points in the quarter.
Shaw led the Falcons with 20 points, while Dixon finished with 12.
But Cedar Shoals held the Falcons to just three points in the fourth quarter while scoring 20 points.
