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High school basketball region tourneys: North Murray boys reach finals, Murray falls just shy of joining them; Creek, Murray, Northwest girls push into championship

daniel mayes, the daily citizen, dalton, ga.
·6 min read

Feb. 16—CHATSWORTH — Murray County High School handed Model one of its four losses in the regular season, and the Indians came oh-so-close to toppling the Blue Devils once again on the region tournament stage.

Murray's late chances were missed or wiped out by fouls, and the third-seeded Indians (11-13) fell just short of second-seeded Model (19-4) 56-54 in overtime in the Region 7-2A semifinals Thursday night.

Model survives and advances to play the other team from Murray County, the North Murray Mountaineers, in the championship round tonight at 8:30. Murray missed out on a home playoff game and an all-Murray title game, but the Indians play Rockmart tonight at 5:30 for third place.

Murray's elation turned to anguish in the final seconds of the overtime period.

Murray senior Tad Stone beat the Model defense and drove into the lane with the clock ticking under 10 seconds in OT.

He jumped, met a Model defender and put in what would have been a go-ahead shot with seven seconds left.

The Indian bench leapt in celebration, but a piercing whistle silenced them as an offensive foul wiped it out.

Model hit a free throw on the other end, and a desperation 3-point attempt by Avery Jones was blocked.

Murray had a chance to take the lead with the same score a few seconds before, but a Jones steal led to a contested Landon Bennett lay-in that rolled just off.

The Jones steal was one of many by the Indians on the night, and a hawking press defense helped generate turnovers as the Indians opened up a lead in the middle two quarters.

A 9-1 run late in the third quarter gave the Indians a 10-point lead, and Murray fought to hold on until the final minutes of the fourth.

Murray led by seven with five minutes to play.

That advantage was cut to one after a pair of Model triples before Bennet made it a 3-point margin with 3:02 left.

Those were Murray's final points of regulation, and a Jakenes Heard 3-pointer with two minutes to play deadlocked the game at 49.

Bennett got a late open 3-pointer and Stone got open for a look in the lane as the buzzer sounded, but those fell off.

Stone led Murray with 16 points, while Bennett scored 14 and Jones hit a trio of 3-pointers and scored 11.

Also in region tournament action Thursday:

Boys

Central-Carrollton 60, Northwest Whitfield 44

Northwest Whitfield (15-11) fell to top-seeded Central-Carrollton (23-3) 60-44 in the semifinals of the Region 7-4A tournament Thursday at Georgia Highlands College in Rome.

The Bruins cut a big Central lead into single digits in the fourth quarter, but Central recovered to push out for a comfortable win. Northwest trailed 28-19 at halftime.

Caden Ramsey led the Bruins with 13 points, while Dakota Blackwell and Gabe Perez each scored eight.

Central advances to the championship game tonight. Northwest plays in an all-Whitfield County third-place game against Southeast Whitfield at 5:30. Both games are at Georgia Highlands.

North Murray 82, Rockmart 69

North Murray has a chance to cap a huge turnaround season with a region title.

The Mountaineers (22-2) used a big second half to cruise by Rockmart (15-12) 82-69 Thursday night in the Region 7-2A semifinals.

The Mountaineers led 38-37 at halftime.

Liam Rogers hit five 3-pointers and led North Murray with 17. Skyler Williams and Judson Petty both scored 13.

North Murray punches its ticket to the region final tonight at 8:30 against Model. The teams shared first place in the region during the regular season. After each team took a game in the season series, North Murray won a coin toss for the right to host the region championship game at home.

The Region 7-2A championship was nearly an all-Murray County affair. Model beat Murray County 56-54 in overtime to reach the championship game.

The last time North Murray, which finished 7-19 a year ago, reached a region championship game was in 2020.

Sonoraville 53, Southeast Whitfield 36

Southeast Whitfield (12-14) couldn't keep up with Sonoraville (18-7) in the semifinals of the Region 7-4A tournament Thursday night. The Raiders fell 53-36 to the Phoenix at Georgia Highlands College in Rome.

Cal Rich scored 13 for the Raiders. Brayden Miles put in 11 points.

Central advances to the championship game tonight, while Southeast plays cross-county rival Northwest Whitfield in the third-place game at 5:30. Both games are at Georgia Highlands.

Girls

Coahulla Creek 46, Bremen 44

A Brinkley Reed diving layup with 10 seconds left was the difference as Coahulla Creek (15-10) downed Bremen (18-8) 46-44 in the semifinals of the Region 6-3A tournament Thursday night.

Coahulla Creek secures a home playoff game and advances to the championship game tonight at 7 p.m. at top-seeded Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe.

Reed led the Lady Colts with 18 points, while Shea Poe scored 10 and Leah Headrick put in nine.

LFO has just one loss on the year, but Coahulla Creek fell just three points shy of the Lady Warriors in a game earlier this season.

Murray County 66, North Murray 40

North Murray (15-10) led early over rival Murray County (19-4) Thursday night in the semifinals of the Region 7-2A tournament, but the Lady Indians had a big close to the first quarter and pulled away to cruise past the Lady Mountaineers 66-40.

North Murray led 8-6 early, but Murray County closed the first quarter on a 16-3 run and led 36-19 by halftime. Murray pulled away to down its cross-town rival for the third time this year.

Murray County secures a home playoff game and punches its ticket into the Region 7-2A finals against Model tonight at 7 at North Murray. The Lady Mountaineers battle for third place against Fannin County at 4 p.m.

Northwest Whitfield 43, Sonoraville 40

There's a reason Northwest Whitfield head coach Bob Williams earned his nickname.

"Big Game Bob" and the Lady Bruins (16-10) toppled Sonoraville (21-5) 43-40 in the Region 7-4A semifinals Thursday at Georgia Highlands College in Rome to clinch another home playoff game for Northwest and another region title game appearance.

Sonoraville lost just four games in the regular season. Northwest handed them one of those and gave them a fifth Thursday.

Kennedy Baker led Northwest with 13 points and 13 rebounds, and Miah Triana scored eight.

Northwest plays for a region title at 7 p.m. tonight at Georgia Highlands against Heritage.

Northwest split two games with Heritage during the regular season.

Hiram 40, Dalton 39

Dalton (19-8) lost a heartbreaker 40-39 in overtime Wednesday to second-seeded Hiram in the semifinals of the Region 7-5A tournament at Calhoun High School.

After the teams ended regulation tied at 38, they scored just three combined points in OT. Dalton went up 39-38 with a free throw, and Hiram hit the eventual game-winning shot with 44 seconds left.

Dalton plays Cartersville this afternoon at 4 in the tournament's third-place game, which will decide playoff seeding for the Lady Cats.