COVINGTON. Ga. — All four of the Newton County area teams competed in the 6th Annual Big South Shootout tournament hosted by Newton High School on New Year’s Eve.
Alcovy, Eastside and Newton enjoyed wins in the tournament with Social Circle being the only area team to suffer a loss.
According to Newton head coach Charlemagne Gibbons, the entire tournament was a success.
“I would love for some of our neighboring schools to capitalize on some of the attention our program has received,” Gibbons said. “It’ll help them get into some events for more promotion of their programs. I was proud of that and each team played extremely well.”
Tigers defeat Glenn Hills 65-58
Alcovy kicked off the tournament on Saturday with a 65-58 win over Glenn Hill from Augusta. The win improves the Tigers’ record to 6-9 overall with a fourth place, 3-2 Region 3-AAAAAA record.
Kendarrius Spear led all Tigers with 24 points followed by Nick Durham with 13. Jakori Pinelle had eight points along with Keyrone Hendrix’s seven points.
Saturday’s win marks the second straight for Alcovy after a 92-67 win over Lamar County on Dec. 30. After beginning region play 0-2, Alcovy downed Rockdale County, Forest Park and Morrow.
The Tigers hit the road for the next three games. They play at Monroe Area on Jan. 3 and, for the first time since Dec. 13, Alcovy will face region opponent Lovejoy on Jan. 6 with another away matchup against Mundy’s Mill on Jan. 10.
Head coach Mack Hardwick hopes to see more consistency from his players as they reenter region play.
“These non-region games have been extremely important,” Hardwick said. “We’re used to a certain level of talent that we’ll be ready for these upcoming region opponents, because they’re going to be tough.”
Eagles down Butler 57-30
For the 12th time out of their 13 total games this season, the Eagles walked off the court victorious. The latest win came on Saturday against Butler out of Augusta with a 57-30 domination.
Eastside improves to 12-1 overall — the program’s best start to a season since its 11-1 record to open 2019-2020 — with a Region 8-AAAAA leading 3-0 record.
Brentarious Reed led all Eagles scorers with 13 points along with Jayvon Johnson’s 11 points.
Eastside beating Butler was fresh off two back-to-back wins over Ohio-based teams in a Florida tournament. The win also extends Eastside’s winning streak to 11 games with their last loss coming on Nov. 19 losing to Tucker 58-53.
But there have been some close contests along the way.
Eastside edged Ola 47-45 at home on Nov. 26. Then, on Dec. 13, Kassen Saunders’ buzzer-beating 3-pointer lifted the Eagles over region foe Heritage. Three days later on Dec. 16, Eastside went on the road and won 52-51 over Clarke Central.
The Eagles return to their region schedule going to Jefferson on Jan. 3 followed by a home game against Flowery Branch on Jan. 6. Winder-Barrow is the next matchup after that on Jan. 10.
Head coach Dorrian Randolph wants to see a mindset shift in his players moving forward.
“We want to get the guys to understand that we’re fortunate to be where we are, but want to find something that keeps us hungry,” Randolph said. “We want them to have the mentality as if we’re the seventh seed still fighting for that first seed.”
Rams enjoy 74-57 win over Dougherty
Newton Rams (9-5, 1-0 Region 4-AAAAAAA) competed in the final game at the Big South Shootout as they defeated the Dougherty Trojans 74-57.
UConn commit Stephon Castle led the Rams with 20 points and he scored the first seven points for his team, too. The Rams finished the game making 13 threes with senior David Freeman hitting five of them, finishing the game with 17 points.
The Rams have won six of their last seven games. They traveled across the country competing in multiple tournaments against some of the top teams in the country like the Duncanville Panthers, who are currently ranked the No.1 team in the country, according to MaxPreps.
Gibbons already feels that his team is ready to compete in Class AAAAAAA.
“To get ready for region play, we had to have a tough non-region schedule,” Gibbons said. “Hopefully all the travel and different types of opponents we played has put us in position to make another run at the region title.”
The Rams will now turn their focus to region play. They already secured a region win over the Archer Tigers, 54- 50 on Dec. 6.
The Rams will start to look to add to their three-game winning streak when they take on the South Gwinnett Comets, who are currently 10-3 in the early season. The game will take place on Jan 6.
Redskins lost to Putnam 74-68
Social Circle lost to Putnam County 74-68 in a back-and-forth battle throughout the whole game.
Senior combo guard Lamarius Jackson and junior forward Justin Russell both led the team in scoring with 19 and 17 points, respectively. The Redskins were in the lead for the majority of the game, but the fatigue started to settle in.
The War Eagles forced a couple turnovers on consecutive possessions to finally take the lead in the fourth quarter.
The Redskins’ loss drops them below .500 with a 5-6 overall record. Regardless of the record, head coach Taylor Jackson is proud of the way his team has fought early in the season and hopes that his starters can play essentially the entire game.
“We really struggled with the depth that Putnam had to offer because we only play five to six players on a nightly basis,” said Jackson. “The challenge for the guys who have been playing is, can you become physically and mentally conditioned to go for 32 minutes?”
Looking ahead, coach Jackson and his team have everything still in front of them. They have eight non-region games left on their schedule and then region play will kick off.
The Redskins’ next game is a home non-region matchup against the Lamar County Trojans on Jan. 3 followed by a road game at Eastside on Jan. 13.
Correspondent DJ Moore contributed to this report.
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