Canes celebrate seniors with win over Troup
The Cartersville girls and boys basketball teams wrapped up the 2019-20 regular season and celebrated their seniors at The Storm Center Saturday with a pair of outstanding efforts.
The Canes defeated the visiting Troup Tigers 76-70 behind a 29-point effort by Kolbe Benham and the Lady Canes took the unbeaten Lady Tigers to the wire before falling 35-31. The Cartersville boys led 16-10 after one quarter, 33-19 at the intermission, and 54-42 heading into the final eight minutes before holding off the Tigers for a six-point win. In addition to Benham’s contributions, Micah Tart and Amarai Orr followed with 16 and 11 points, respectively. Kyler Johnson scored seven points. Marquail Coaxum finished with six. Robert Novak had five points and Kam Callahan added two for the Hurricanes. K.J. Tucker scored 24 points to lead Troup (11-11, 5-7). Gabe Cofield added 23 for the Tigers. The win by Cartersville (8-12, 4-8) earns the No. 5-seed in the Region 5-AAAA Tournament next week and keeps the Canes out of a Monday play-in game. The Canes will open tournament play Wednesday at LaGrange High School in a rematch against the Troup Tigers.
TROUP 35, CARTERSVILLE GIRLS 31
The Troup County girls finished off a 22-0 regular season Saturday at The Storm Center with a win over Cartersville, but it didn’t come easily. Despite not scoring in the second quarter, the Lady Canes almost chased down the visiting Lady Tigers down the stretch. The game was tied 10-10 after one quarter before Troup took a 24-10 lead in the second quarter. The Tigers extended their lead to 30-12 through three quarters before Cartersville outscored them 19-5 in the final period. Alexcia Murphy led Troup with 14 points. Ambert Gilbert scored eight. Ariana Cochran led Cartersville with 11 points. Naijah Evans followed with six. Jada Cunningham scored five. Lehla Thomas finished with four points. Lexie Henderson and Cio Seigler added three and two points, respectively. Cartersville (10-14, 3-9) will open the Region 5-AAAA Tournament Monday in a play-in game against LaGrange at Cedartown at 6 p.m.
