Friday Night Recap

The LeFlore Rattlers (29-2) had won 15 straight heading into yesterday's Regional Championship game against Eufaula (29-3). In fact, its been a pretty easy stretch for LeFlore as they have won six games in a row by double digits. The last time the Rattlers had a scare was on January 23rd against Duncanville (54-51 Win). Things got spooky for LeFlore yesterday and they barely crept out of Troy University's gym with a 5 point victory. If it wasn't for DeMarcus Cousins' 8 points in the final 1:25 of play, the Rattlers would have been a sunken battleship because Eufaula held a 5 point lead at that point. There was no answer for Cousins yesterday. If anyone wondered what a McDonald's All-American looked like, his 35 points and 13 boards helped give a pretty vivid picture. LeFlore's victory yesterday kept their hopes for a State Championship alive. They advanced to the State Playoffs and will play next Friday (February 27) at the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Center against Parker (27-5) at 1:30pm.

Wheeler (19-7) seems to have bounced back from last Friday's loss to Walton. They are where everyone expected them to be today...in the Regional Championship game. The Wildcats took care of business last night against Milton (19-7), securing a 65-53 victory. The name Richard Howell has become synonymous with the term "double-double." He had 19 points and 11 boards in a game in which Wheeler never trailed. They face Centennial (Sorry for the spoiler!) tonight in the Regional Championship game at 7:30pm.


Walton (18-8) hasn't found an answer for Lorenzo Brown. Zo scored 30 points in their first meeting on January 16th and nearly matched that effort last night with 29 points. Centennial (24-3) looked like the #1 team in the state of Georgia last night, putting away Walton 84-76. Zo has a reputation for being cool and unshakable. He lived up to his hype last night by scoring 21 of his 29 in the second half, hitting 80% of everything he threw up (He shot 60% for the whole game). Ryan Harrow had 20 points and 5 assists in the game. Walton will face off against Milton later today in the Regional Consolation game.

The Marion Giants (17-2) nailed down a perfect conference record last night by beating Muncie Central (8-10) 65-51 in their final conference game of the regular season. As long as the North Central Conference has been in existence it has had a feud between Marion and Muncie. Last night Marion moved out of a tie with Muncie to wear the crown outright for the most championships in conference history (20). Scott Wood's 23 points anchored the Giant's first win over the Bearcats since the 01-02 season.