COVINGTON,Ga - The Alcovy Tigers earned their second victory of the season in the NewRock showcase defeating the Rockdale County Bulldogs by a score of 53-48.

It seemed like every time the Bulldogs inched closer to the Tigers; the Tigers would go on a run and increase their margin. The most impressive part of the Tigers' performance was that this truly was not their highest level of play, by far. 

This was a team victory in every sense as one member did not outshine the rest of the squad. There were multiple contributors for the Tigers, and each point was of the utmost importance for the Tigers in this close victory.

The leading scorer on the day for the Tigers was Avion Young, who finished with 14 points. Young has played a complementary role in the Tigers offense all season, but this performance was important to help keep the Tigers undefeated to start the season.

Young was followed by strong scoring showings from Jamal Donahue, who finished with 12 points, and Treyvon Howze, who finished with 11 points.

The name that is surprisingly missing from this list of leading scorers is the man who this offense runs through, Oliver Gerard. Gerard just did not seem to have the ability to get shots to fall, but his impact was still present in the game. 

Gerard made big-time dynamic plays and was able to give the Tigers a boost in certain situations when it seemed like momentum was with the Bulldogs. 

With Gerard struggling, it was nice that the Tigers were able to pull together and lock down a team victory, which head coach Mack Hardwick prefers to see over just one guy having a standout name.

"I love a balanced effort over one guy being our dominant scorer," said Hardwick. "In the coaching world, that's great because I would love to play a team that only has one scorer, so it's easier to contain one person rather than any given player."

While Hardwick is happy with the win, he was not completely happy with his teams showing and knows they still have plenty of areas to improve.

"Not our best game whatsoever, I appreciate the win, but our boys are better than that," said Hardwick. "We let them speed us up and got careless with the basketball, and we missed a lot of free throws and shots from the perimeter, so I know our boys can play better than that."

The Tigers will look to get back to their dominant style of play in their next game, which will come on Tuesday, November 19th, against Drew Charter school senior academy on the road.