The Commerce Tigers find themselves atop the 8A standings following wins last week over Athens Christian and Prince Avenue, although they suffered their first region loss of the year at the hands of Athens Academy.
That leaves the Tigers 5-1 in region play and 10-4 overall going into this week.
Up next is a trip to Dacula where they’ll face the Hebron Christian Academy Lions.
The Lions are 3-4 in the region and 4-14 overall. Commerce will try to extend a six-game winning streak over the Lions that dates to December 2007. In their most recent meeting last season, Commerce won, 77-58.
Tipoff is scheduled for 8:30 p.m.
Commerce is also scheduled to make up the snowed out game at Tallulah Falls on Saturday at 7:30 p.m.
Athens Christian
The Tigers opened up play last week by hosting Athens Christian.
Commerce got off to a good start, leading 14-8 after the first period, but Athens Christian rallied to take a 31-29 lead at the half. The Tigers used the third quarter to regain the lead at 46-44 and held off Hebron over the final eight minutes to claim the 60-58 victory.
Anthony Norris led the Tigers with 22 points, followed by Bubba Bonds with 15, Tyler Gamble with 11 and Brandon Romans with eight. Thomas McMillan added four points.
Athens Academy
On Friday, the Tigers traveled to the Classic City to face Athens Academy.
The Spartans jumped out to a 13-9 advantage at the end of the first quarter, and a low-scoring second stanza saw Athens Academy end the half up 17-14. The game remained within two points in the third quarter, as the Spartans scored 10 points while Commerce added 11 to make it 27-25 at the end of the third. But Athens Academy outscored Commerce 17-12 in the final quarter to win 44-37.
Norris led Commerce with 14 points, followed by Bonds with 10, Gamble with six, Romans with five and McMillan with two.
Prince Avenue
The Tigers returned home on Saturday to host Prince Avenue Christian.
Commerce jumped out to an early lead, 13-10, by the end of the first quarter. The Tigers tacked on another 25 points in the second period to make it a 38-22 advantage at the half. They led 51-36 after three periods and cruised to an 82-60 win.
For more on this story, see Wednesday's edition of The Commerce News.
