After the Feb. 1 upset to Apalachee, the Madison County Lady Red Raiders returned to the hardwood to split the weekend against Winder-Barrow and Buford.
Picking up a sub-region win over the Lady Bulldogs improved Madison County to 8-1 in the North 8-AAAA region, but the dropped game to Buford left the girls with their third loss of the season and 19-3 overall.
Entering the final week of regular season play, the Lady Red Raiders spoiled Habersham’s final game in their old gym with a 68-55 win over the HC Raiders adding another sub-region win. Individual stats were unavailable at press time.
Coming up this week, Madison County makes up for lost time from snowpocalypse with the rescheduled Clarke Central and Apalachee games.
Friday, the girls host Clarke Central in a 7 p.m. game, then end the regular season at home against Apalachee Saturday in a 4 p.m. start with senior night honors activities also being held.
According to coach Dan Lampe, the final two games are huge for the Lady Red Raiders as the top three seeds are basically wide open.
“These final games are huge for us,” he said. “It is kind of like we have already started our region tournament with how important these games are for us.”
Madison County currently 9-1; 20-3 is tied for the top of 8-AAAA North against Clarke Central (9-1, 19-4). The Lady Gladiators defeated Apalachee (4-4, 12-10) Tuesday night, 67-48. Madison County has one victory under its belt over the Lady Gladiators, an overtime 55-51 win from Jan. 28. Now with the sub-region title and more importantly, region tournament seeding on the line the Lady Red Raiders will have to play an error-less game as Clarke Central looks for any advantage.
Friday is also honor night for Madison County with middle school teams being recognized at halftime of both the girls and boys varsity games. The middle school girls will be honored at the girls’ break and the MCMS boys during the Raiders’ halftime.
Saturday, the final regular season game comes down to Madison County against the only sub-region team to defeat the Lady Red Raiders - Apalachee.
The Lady Wildcats upset Madison County 49-47 last Tuesday at their place, now with the Lady Red Raiders holding the home court advantage, a boisterous Madison County fan section would be expected as the girls seek redemption. Tip-off at 4 p.m. will be followed by senior night honors for the team’s four seniors during the break between the girls and boys game.
Lady Red Raider seniors include Kayla Freeman, Juleigh Fouche, Haley Peeples and Elizabeth Whieldon.
Last week’s win over Winder-Barrow was described by Lampe as, “good practice for the region tournament.”
Madison County attacked the boards on offense and worked the transition to down several points in the 52-47 win over the Lady Bulldoggs.
The game wasn’t a sure thing for the Lady Red Raiders, who stayed in a zone coverage all game.
“We played zone and it was kind of uncomfortable for me,” Lampe said adding that the game seemed to be separated by only five or six points at any given point in the heat of the action.
After a neck-and-neck first period, Winder-Barrow led 13-11. Madison County took the advantage at the half, leading 21-20. The Lady Red Raiders managed to put in some buffer points in the third period, but Winder-Barrow came back in the final period to challenge.
Getting back out to a five point lead with 1:30 left, Winder made a final rally attempt, putting themselves into position to make something happen with 32 seconds remaining and trailing by three.
Madison County was sent to the line adding a point. Winder hit their shot dropping two points, but ran put of time as Madison County added three more with five second left and secured the win, 52-47.
“We had to do all the little things to win, and we did,” Lampe said. “Winder-Barrow came to win and we had to play good against them. We executed down the wire.”
Freeman led the Lady Red Raiders with half the scoring to her credit, 26 points. Molly Glaze followed with 12 and Whieldon dropped five points. Elise Coberly put up four points with Peeples adding three and Areil Sorrells two points in the victory.
While the victory over Winder-Barrow was a highlight from the weekend, the 52-29 loss to Buford also had some highlight-able moments.
“Even though we lost, we cut the loss in half from out last game with them,” said Lampe. “We didn’t execute like we wanted and had 30 plus turnovers.”
Trouble attacking the basket, missing six layups in the first half, Madison County also had to contend with Buford’s press, resulting in the Lady Red Raiders being down by 12 at the break.
Without hitting double digit scoring Madison County’s offense was led by Sorrells with seven, followed by Freeman and Fouche with six points each. Coberly put up five, while Glaze added three points and Whieldon, two.
