Seth Fleming is guarded by a pair of Franklin County defenders.
Fourth straight loss fuels frustration
Following a fourth consecutive loss, Madison County will take time to refocus since it won’t play again until Dec. 27.
“Refocus is a good word to use,” Raider coach Steve Crouse said. “It’s gut-check time.”
The gut-check comes after Madison County was buried in the first quarter against Loganville Tuesday night in a 78-63 loss.
Crouse said the team didn’t have a good practice Monday and it showed Tuesday in the game.
“We need our seniors to start leading and we need our players to start listening and buying into what we’re talking about and let’s go do it on the court — in practice, first, and in the game, second,” Crouse said.
The Raiders are now 5-5 after starting 5-1.
“We’ve got to get better,” Crouse said. “We won some games early and we got complacent and got content.”
Loganville outscored Madison County 28-6 in the first quarter Tuesday and the deficit was too much for the Raiders to overcome.
Madison County trailed by 16 at the half.
“We didn’t play hard on defense,” Crouse said. “We got outworked tonight (Tuesday). It was very frustrating.”
Madison County again turned the ball over too many times (18) and surrendered too many offensive rebounds (18).
“We have up too many second-chance opportunities,” Crouse said.
Loganville also limited Madison County’s leading scorer Patrick McCrary to just six shots from the floor and 10 points on the evening.
Crouse said his squad attempted too many three-pointers and didn’t look to the inside enough for offense. Madison County shot 5-of-21 from the behind the arc.
“We weren’t taking the shots we needed to take,” Crouse said. “We weren’t trying to attack the rim.”
Crouse noted another disturbing statistic. In Loganville’s first 24 possessions, Madison County generated just two defensive stops.
“They either scored or got an offensive rebound,” Crouse said.
Madison County will try to halt its four-game losing streak after Christmas when it takes part in Hart County’s holiday tournament, starting Dec. 27.
The Raiders play Hart County, Stephens County and Elbert County.
Loganville 78, Madison Co. 63
MCHS 6 16 16 25 — 63
LHS 28 10 15 25 — 78
Leading scorers: Raines 18, Fleming 13, McCrary 10
Weekend in Review
UGA signee leads Lions over Raiders
Madison County failed to do what the rest of Northeast Georgia has tried in vain to do — stop Demario Mayfield.
The Franklin County Lion standout and University of Georgia signee scored 32 points as Franklin County downed Madison County, 81-75, Saturday in Danielsville.
“We tried to do different things to contain him … but he got his points,” coach Steve Crouse said.
The Raiders’ Reterrium Davis countered with 23 points and Patrick McCrary added a double-double, but it wasn’t enough to carry Madison County past Class AAA’s no. 3 ranked team.
Madison County out-rebounded Franklin County, 40-36, but the Lions shot 51.5 percent from the floor, which made the biggest difference in the game.
When a team shoots that percentage, “there is not much left to rebound,” Crouse noted.
The Raiders rallied from an 11-point third quarter deficit to cut the Lions’ advantage to 67-62 with less than five minutes left in the game. After forcing a defensive stop, Madison County had a chance to come within one possession of the Lions’ lead, but turned the ball over on a five-second call on its subsequent trip down the floor.
Franklin County then scored eight of the next 10 points to extend its lead back out to 11.
The coach said his team simply ran out of gas.
“I could see that that they were spent,” Crouse said. “They were empty. So we weren’t able to make a run like we could have under different circumstances.”
Davis hit eight of 17 shots from the floor — including two three pointers — in the Raiders’ losing effort. He also converted all five of his free throw attempts in one of the best offensive games of his career.
Patrick McCrary also turned out another stellar game in the post, scoring 17 points and collecting 11 boards.
One night earlier, McCrary scored 23 points as Madison County came up short in another high scoring affair Friday against Rockdale County.
Joining McCrary in the offensive effort were Bradley Raines (16 points), Davis (15) and Seth Fleming (14) as Madison County registered its highest offensive output of the season, but lost 86-77.
Madison County fell despite shooting 50.9 percent from the floor.
The biggest difference? Madison County gave up 25 offensive rebounds and turned the ball over 30 times.
“That’s 25 second-chance opportunities for them and 30 times that we don’t even take a shot,” Crouse said.
That resulted in Rockdale County taking 68 shots to Madison County’s 37 and shooting 41 free throws to the Raiders’ 25.
Still, Madison County led by five points at one point in the third quarter, but the turnovers were too much to overcome.
“We stopped taking care of the basketball … It was frustrating,” Crouse said.
The coach said he stressed to his team beforehand that it had to take care of the basketball. However, most of the team’s turnovers were a result of unforced errors.
“We gave it away more than I felt we got beat,” Crouse said.
Despite two losses this weekend, the coach couldn’t fault his team’s desire in either one of those contests.
“Our kids played hard,” Crouse said. “They gave every thing they had.”
FRANKLIN CO. 81, MADISON CO. 75
FCHS 22 23 19 17 — 81
MCHS 17 20 19 19 — 75
Scorers: Davis 23, McCrary 17, Fleming 10, Raines 9, McGuire 6, Griffeth 5, Morris 3, Smith 2
ROCKDALE CO. 86, MADISON CO. 77
RCHS 15 24 21 26 — 86
MCHS 12 26 21 18 — 77
Scorers: McCrary 23, Raines 16, Davis 15, Fleming 14, McGuire 5, Griffeth 4
The gut-check comes after Madison County was buried in the first quarter against Loganville Tuesday night in a 78-63 loss.
Crouse said the team didn’t have a good practice Monday and it showed Tuesday in the game.
“We need our seniors to start leading and we need our players to start listening and buying into what we’re talking about and let’s go do it on the court — in practice, first, and in the game, second,” Crouse said.
The Raiders are now 5-5 after starting 5-1.
“We’ve got to get better,” Crouse said. “We won some games early and we got complacent and got content.”
Loganville outscored Madison County 28-6 in the first quarter Tuesday and the deficit was too much for the Raiders to overcome.
Madison County trailed by 16 at the half.
“We didn’t play hard on defense,” Crouse said. “We got outworked tonight (Tuesday). It was very frustrating.”
Madison County again turned the ball over too many times (18) and surrendered too many offensive rebounds (18).
“We have up too many second-chance opportunities,” Crouse said.
Loganville also limited Madison County’s leading scorer Patrick McCrary to just six shots from the floor and 10 points on the evening.
Crouse said his squad attempted too many three-pointers and didn’t look to the inside enough for offense. Madison County shot 5-of-21 from the behind the arc.
“We weren’t taking the shots we needed to take,” Crouse said. “We weren’t trying to attack the rim.”
Crouse noted another disturbing statistic. In Loganville’s first 24 possessions, Madison County generated just two defensive stops.
“They either scored or got an offensive rebound,” Crouse said.
Madison County will try to halt its four-game losing streak after Christmas when it takes part in Hart County’s holiday tournament, starting Dec. 27.
The Raiders play Hart County, Stephens County and Elbert County.
Loganville 78, Madison Co. 63
MCHS 6 16 16 25 — 63
LHS 28 10 15 25 — 78
Leading scorers: Raines 18, Fleming 13, McCrary 10
Weekend in Review
UGA signee leads Lions over Raiders
Madison County failed to do what the rest of Northeast Georgia has tried in vain to do — stop Demario Mayfield.
The Franklin County Lion standout and University of Georgia signee scored 32 points as Franklin County downed Madison County, 81-75, Saturday in Danielsville.
“We tried to do different things to contain him … but he got his points,” coach Steve Crouse said.
The Raiders’ Reterrium Davis countered with 23 points and Patrick McCrary added a double-double, but it wasn’t enough to carry Madison County past Class AAA’s no. 3 ranked team.
Madison County out-rebounded Franklin County, 40-36, but the Lions shot 51.5 percent from the floor, which made the biggest difference in the game.
When a team shoots that percentage, “there is not much left to rebound,” Crouse noted.
The Raiders rallied from an 11-point third quarter deficit to cut the Lions’ advantage to 67-62 with less than five minutes left in the game. After forcing a defensive stop, Madison County had a chance to come within one possession of the Lions’ lead, but turned the ball over on a five-second call on its subsequent trip down the floor.
Franklin County then scored eight of the next 10 points to extend its lead back out to 11.
The coach said his team simply ran out of gas.
“I could see that that they were spent,” Crouse said. “They were empty. So we weren’t able to make a run like we could have under different circumstances.”
Davis hit eight of 17 shots from the floor — including two three pointers — in the Raiders’ losing effort. He also converted all five of his free throw attempts in one of the best offensive games of his career.
Patrick McCrary also turned out another stellar game in the post, scoring 17 points and collecting 11 boards.
One night earlier, McCrary scored 23 points as Madison County came up short in another high scoring affair Friday against Rockdale County.
Joining McCrary in the offensive effort were Bradley Raines (16 points), Davis (15) and Seth Fleming (14) as Madison County registered its highest offensive output of the season, but lost 86-77.
Madison County fell despite shooting 50.9 percent from the floor.
The biggest difference? Madison County gave up 25 offensive rebounds and turned the ball over 30 times.
“That’s 25 second-chance opportunities for them and 30 times that we don’t even take a shot,” Crouse said.
That resulted in Rockdale County taking 68 shots to Madison County’s 37 and shooting 41 free throws to the Raiders’ 25.
Still, Madison County led by five points at one point in the third quarter, but the turnovers were too much to overcome.
“We stopped taking care of the basketball … It was frustrating,” Crouse said.
The coach said he stressed to his team beforehand that it had to take care of the basketball. However, most of the team’s turnovers were a result of unforced errors.
“We gave it away more than I felt we got beat,” Crouse said.
Despite two losses this weekend, the coach couldn’t fault his team’s desire in either one of those contests.
“Our kids played hard,” Crouse said. “They gave every thing they had.”
FRANKLIN CO. 81, MADISON CO. 75
FCHS 22 23 19 17 — 81
MCHS 17 20 19 19 — 75
Scorers: Davis 23, McCrary 17, Fleming 10, Raines 9, McGuire 6, Griffeth 5, Morris 3, Smith 2
ROCKDALE CO. 86, MADISON CO. 77
RCHS 15 24 21 26 — 86
MCHS 12 26 21 18 — 77
Scorers: McCrary 23, Raines 16, Davis 15, Fleming 14, McGuire 5, Griffeth 4
Trackbacks
Trackback specific URI for this entry
No Trackbacks