THOMASVILLE TIMES
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TUESDAY, JANUARY 19,2010
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.6 p.m.
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Game Report
Deadlines:
Monday-Friday
9 p.m. ■
tviHesports@yahoo.com
BYZACHKEPLEY
Sports Editor
LEXINGTON — When
the clock read zero’s on
Saturday at Brinkley
Gym, the stat sheet for
Davidson County Com
munity College did not
look aU that impres
sive. Fortunately for the
Storm, they had the ad
vantage in the category
that matters most.
Three days after an
emotional conference
win, the Storm stepped
Out of league play, slug
gishly defeating Tidewa
ter Community College
82-78.
Rico Geter and Justin
Glover filled up the scor
ing column with 26 and
23 points, respectively,
but it was the other sta
tistical categories that
caught the attention of
third-year head coach
Matt Ridge.
“For the vast
majority of the
game we threw
the ball all over
the gym and had
just a total lack
of focus,” Ridge
said. “I am sit
ting here look
ing at the stat sheet and
most of our players are
in the negative. We have
a player with one assist
and eight turnovers and
we had 16 assists and 27
turnovers as a team. It is
hard to win games like
that.”
Davidson was in good
shape late in the first
half, leading 29-17 after
six points from Geter and
34-19 after five more from
Glover with 4:26
remaining.
Tidewater
used a 15-6 run
to narrow the
gap down to
four at the half,
using Jared
Whittington ef
fectively on the outside
and Bryon Carpenter in
the paint.
Two Storm baskets on
their first two posses
sions of the second half
provided a 10-point ad-.
vantage for DCCC at 44-
34, and the turnover woes
seemed to be solved.
They weren’t.
Tidewater happily
took advantage of a poor,
three-minute stretch of
basketball by DCCC, rat
tling off 11 unanswered
points to gain a 45-44
edge.
Neither team allowed
the other to get too far
ahead from there, as the
outcome would be decid
ed in the fimal minute.
Geter came around a
Zack Williams screen for
a bucket in the lane that
tied the game for the final
time at 78-78.
See DCCC, Page 8
ASU deja vu for Freeman
BY ELIOT DUKE
Staff Writer
GREENSBORO — Anna Freeman’s last
trip to UNC-Greensboro’s Fleming Gymna
sium didn’t go quite as well as Saturday’s
visit. Freeman returned to the floor where
her East Davidson High School career
ended as a freshman at Appalachian State
University Unlike last year’s regional fi
nal loss. Freeman and ASU walked away
with a 72-57 victory over the UNC-G Spar
tans, evening the Mountaineers Southern
Conference record at 4-4.
“I walked into [Fleming Gymnasium] for
practice and was like ‘not OK’”,” Freeman
said. “I’m glad to fix that from last year.
I don’t want to walk in here and think of
that.”
Making the transition from superstar to
one of a talented group of freshmen. Free
man is right where she wants to be mid
way through her first college season.
“It’s definitely a bigger, faster, ^stronger
situation,” said Freeman. “I looked huge
on a high school court and I’m definitely
not the biggest one on a college court.”
Freeman picked Appalachian State last
spring because she wanted to be part of
a building process, much like her career
at East Davidson. The Mountaineers are a
very young team with a combined 10 fresh
men and sophomores, and their 8-9 record
reflects it. Freeman said ASU has had its
ups and downs, but is building something
that could be very special.
“It’s a lot like my freshman year in high
school,” Freeman said. “We kind of strug
gled through the conference, then we just
kind of took off Hopefully, college will be
a repeat of what happened in high school.
I like being the underdog. In high school,
that’s What made it fun. East Davidson
wasn’t exactly known for its winning
program, and now look at what they’ve
become. Hopefully, that’s what wUl Appa-
TIMES PHOTO/ELIOT DUKE
East Davidson alum Anna Freeman shares a smile with a teammate
See freeman. Page 10 during Appalachian State's 72-57 win over UNCG on Saturday.
ACC BASKETBALL
Blue Devils put away Wake in 2nd half
BY BRYAN STRICKLAND
Durham Herald Sun
DURHAM — For a mo
ment, it felt like a foot
ball game had broken out
Sunday night at Cameron
Indoor Stadium.
With Duke trying to
protect a hard-earned
lead down the stretch of
their 90-70 victory over
Wakq Forest, Kyle Sin-
gler drove toward the
basket but got caught in
mid-air by big man Tony
Woods, the force of the
foul flinging Singler off
balance and sending him
hard to the floor.
Singler, however,
bounced up like noth
ing had happened and
circled toward the Duke
students, his screams of
“Let’s go!” inaudible over
the chaotic crowd.
Singler tried to gather
himself, then let go of a
free throw that fell well
short of the rim.
“I was worried and I
was laughing at the same
time,” teammate Nolan
Smith said. “I just said,
‘What was that?’ as if I
didn’t see what just hap
pened.
“And he was like, ‘I’ve
got this one. I’ve got this
one,’ and he was able to
knock it in.”
Singler made the sec
ond free throw to extend
the Blue Devils’ lead to
14, just one example of
a physical and emotion
ally charged night where
the adage, “If at first you
don’t succeed, try, try
again,” never rang more
true.
“That was one of the
truly great moments,”
Duke coach Mike Krzyze-
wski said of Singler’s
second free throw. “That
was the hardest game
we’ve played this yeat
That was a hard-fought
game.
“Certain games are just
.played at a higher level,
and tonight was one of
them.”
Now the eighth-ranked
Blue Devils (15-2, 3-1
ACC), who got career
highs of 19 points and
14 rebounds from sopho-
See AWAY, Page 10
HIGH SCHOOL
BASKETBALL
.1
I g- -h
T'
.r
TIMES PHOTO/FRANK RAUCCIO
Ledford point guard Na
than Parks sets up the
Panther offense against
SWR on Friday.
LHS builds
big lead
then holds
on for win
BY ZACH KEPLEY
Sports Editor
WALLBURG — After
cruising through three
quarters, the Ledford
Panthers nearly tossed
it all away with a shaky
start to the fourth, but
regrouped to beat South
western Randolph 55-43
on Friday
Ledford improved to
11-4 on the year, 2-1 in the
Mid-Piedmont Confer
ence with the victory
“Teams are going to
make runs, but I have got
to do a better job of pre
paring my guys to play
with a lead and finish
games,” said LHS coach
Scott Dalton. “That be
ing said, they need to do
a better job on their end
and make good decisions.
We forced a lot there in
the fourth quarter when
we didn’t need to.”
The game had the mak
ings for a blowout at half-
time with the Panthers
up 30-16. Defensive pres
sure and Constant attacks
at the basket aided in an
even bigger lead, as Led
ford blazed ahead to lead
47-28 with a quarter to
go.
“Third quarter we
came out and- tried to
put it away, and it is a
good thing we did,” Dal
ton said. Offensively, we
were aggressive. We were
attacking on the base
line and we found Dylan
Smith on the block. We
turned up the heat on de
fense and were able to get
some separation.”
Southwestern Ran
dolph caught Ledford let
ting up a bit to start the
fourth quarter, but at the
same time, were able to fi
nally make some shots.
Taylor Ray banked in a
shot for LHS that began
the quarter, but a 7-0 run
for the Cougars ensued,
causing Dalton to have a
stern chat with his team
in the huddle. The speech
did not land, as the Pan
thers continued to play
sloppy ball and South
western closed the gap
down to 49-41.
Dalton tried another
timeout, and this time
the message was finally
sent.
Nathan Parks put an
See LHS, Page 8