The Commerce High School Tigers ended an era last Friday night.
The final game of the regular season also marked the end of the CHS gymnasium.
The gym is slated to be demolished this spring to make room for the new high school. A future practice gymnasium almost completed will serve as the temporary home for the Tigers during next season. A new pit-style basketball facility will be constructed as part of the new high school.
While those concerns rest with someone else, the Tigers and coach Chad Bridges are focused on the Region Tournament this week.
“We feel like we have a pretty good chance to win,” said Bridges.
The first opponent Commerce faces is Social Circle at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday. The fourth-seeded Tigers face fifth-seeded Social Circle at Lakeview Academy.
“I expect Social to come out and try to pressure us,” Bridges said. “The things we have got to do are stop them from penetrating to the basket and do a great job on rebounding.”
Check www.mainstreetnewssports.com for scores after Wednesday’s game.
Last week the Tigers split their final two games, picking up a win over Towns County, but dropping the season closer to Athens Christian.
Against Towns County, Bridges said Commerce executed well on offense and shot well in the 67-49 win.
“Since the last game against Towns, we improved a great deal defensively,” Bridges said. “Towns has improved and it was good for us to be able to beat them worse than before.”
At half time, Commerce led 34-27 and the Tigers continued to extend the lead in the third quarter to 52-36.
Leading Commerce on offense, T. Green scored 17 points followed by Drake Cash with 14. Channing Anderson scored nine while Cameron Billings picked up eight. Anthony Norris and Brandon Romans added six each, Deon Orsborne scored three points and Tyler Gamble and Bubba Bonds had two apiece.
Then Athens Christian visited on Friday.
Bridges cited turnovers and missed lay-ups in the second quarter as allowing Athens Christian to pull ahead and go on for the win, 58-46.
Commerce led 15-11 at the end of the first quarter, but Athens Christian took over in the second quarter to lead 33-24 at the half. Commerce could not recover.
“The first time we played them we didn’t handle their pressure,” Bridges said, “Friday we handled it fairly well, but didn’t play well in the second quarter. We hope to rebound and get them during the tourney.”
Anderson led the scoring for the Tigers with 15. Norris put up nine, followed by Cash with eight and Billings with seven. Torrance Wilcher added four points and Green scored three.
