Pictures by Zoe Peterson
Clarke Central High School faced off against Cedar Shoals High School in their annual rivalry basketball game on Dec. 16 at CCHS.
The Cedar Shoals High School basketball program hosted the Clarke Central High School basketball program on Dec. 16 at CSHS for their annual rivalry games.
The JV girls started the day off, being neck and neck in the first quarter. Going into the second quarter, the CSHS Lady Jaguars led 10-9. In the second quarter, the Lady Jags scored 13 points while the CCHS Lady Gladiators only scored two, making the score 23-11 Jags. In the third quarter, the Lady Glads gained back some momentum, but the Lady Jags were still in the lead with the score of 34-20. The Lady Glads fought back, but they did not have enough time. The JV Lady Jags won 43-25.
“I thought we didn’t play to our best potential. We played better than that last night with the same girls,” CCHS head JV girls coach Lawanna Knight said. “Our numbers are low but that’s not an excuse because we can only take five out there, in fact, the best play we ran all night was with four people if that says anything. Everything that could go wrong today, went wrong today.”
The JV boys played next. Like the JV girls, the JV boys stayed neck and neck for the first quarter. The teams went into the second quarter 7-6 Jags, and both teams continued the momentum, making the score tied 14-14 going into the third quarter. The Jags took the lead towards the beginning of the third quarter, but the Glads came back at the end with a buzzer beater making the score 28-27 Glads. For the fourth quarter, the Glads and Jags competed closely until the final buzzer. The JV Glads won 46-42.
“The expectations for today were pretty high. We missed a lot of shots that could’ve put us up, especially during halftime, around that area, it was 14-14 which didn’t really seem right,” CCHS JV basketball player Chris Johnson, a sophomore, said. “I really think that we need to shoot more free throws because free throws really came in handy at the very end. We need to get more rebounds, box out a little more but overall it was a really good game.”
Starting off the varsity girls game, the Lady Jags ended the first quarter with an 11 point lead over the Lady Glads, making the score 18-7 Lady Jags going into the second quarter. The Lady Jags scored 11 points while the Lady Glads scored seven, keeping the Lady Jags in the lead with a score of 29-14 Lady Jags. The Lady Jags led 31-14 going into the third quarter, but the Lady Glads gained back momentum, trying to close up the gap during the fourth quarter but the Lady Jags stayed ahead. The varsity Lady Jags won 60-51.
“We knew we were going to have to lock down (CSHS senior varsity basketball player) Genesis (Crawley) and (CSHS varsity basketball player, a junior) Jeanetta (Elder) but we just gotta work on boxing out and we small so we really gotta work on that. I feel like the first half we could’ve done better, but the second half we gave it our all. It just was too late,” CCHS varsity basketball player Samiha Rittenberry, a junior, said.
The varsity boys ended the day with Cedar in the lead at the end of the first quarter by four points. During the second quarter, both teams stayed competitive matching point for point, but the Jaguars stayed in the lead with a score of 31-28. Going into the fourth quarter the Glads and Jags were tied 41-41. The score was close all the way until the end of the game, but the Jags came out on top, 56-51.
“I feel like we should’ve won but we underestimated them. It was a close game but our intensity just wasn’t there. We need to work on finishing and communicating,” CCHS senior varsity basketball player Quamontae Monfort said.
The Gladiator basketball program will face off against the Jags for redemption in the CCHS New Gym on Jan. 20, 2018.
