With Stephens County’s athleticism and experience going against Madison County’s youth, one would expect a blowout. But hand it to the Red Raiders, they hung in the game with the Indians for all four quarter.
However, Madison County (6-10, 0-3) just didn’t have anything left at the end to complete a comeback and they fell to Stephens County 68-54.
Scoring has been an issue all year for the Raiders, but they did have two players score in double figures. Freshman Tay Cooper had 15 points, mostly from beyond the arch. Jackson Bailey added 11 points. Five other players combined for 27 points.
“I was proud of our guy’s effort,” said head coach Tim Drake. “Stephens County, most nights athletically are so far ahead of us. But heart-wise, they’re not ahead of us and that’s why our guys were able to hang in there and make it a game most of the time.”
Madison County scored first and had several good defensive possessions. But they couldn’t build on a 4-0 lead and eventually Stephens County’s offense began picking up points thanks to a lot of offensive rebounds.
“We knew rebounding was going to be an issue,” Drake said. “They’re much bigger than us, Deundra Singleton has been playing since he was a freshman. He’s 6’8, probably 250, I mean he’s a load. The focus was keeping him off the boards. But saying it and doing it are two different things.”
The game remained close for a while but Stephens County began to pull away late in the first quarter and they led 16-9 after eight minutes. The Raiders never let the Indians pull too far away, but they never cut the game any closer than two points either. They trailed at halftime 31-25.
The third quarter is where the game was lost, Stephens finally started pulling away and at one point they led by 16 points. The quarter ended with Madison County trailing 52-39.
Just when it looked as though Stephens had the game settled with a 58-41 lead early in the fourth quarter, Madison County went on a 7-0 run and had all of the momentum. Then a few failed possessions turned into points for Stephens County. The game never got closer than eight points and the Raiders lost 68-54.
“We’re young now,” Drake said. “We have become a young team, we’re playing a freshman and about three sophomores and anytime you go young in quad-A basketball, you’re going to take your lumps. You’re going to take your L’s and maybe get a win or two here and there. That’s the state of where we are right now.”
Madison County hosts Oconee County this Friday night in another region game. The Warriors are 13-3 and 2-1 in the region. They lost their first region game of the year Tuesday night to Jefferson.
The Raiders then travel to Habersham Central (4-12, 0-3 in region 8-AAAAAA) on Saturday. Madison County defeated Habersham Central 69-65 at home back on December 19.
