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Bulloch Academy sweeps Cavaliers
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Bulloch Academy's Pate Lomax scores two of her game-leading 17 points on Friday against Augusta Prep. - photo by BRYAN BURKE/Special to the Herald

          Bulloch Academy sophomore Will Marsh epitomized the effort that the Gators gave in their 53-49 upset of Augusta Preparatory School Friday night.

The skinny forward had been pushed around by the more physical Cavaliers all game long yet he managed 15 points headed into the fourth quarter. Then, with 4:12 left in the game and Bulloch up by five, Marsh calmly walked over to the BA bench, blood dripping down his face from a cut above his left eye.

            Two minutes later, with a bandage on the cut and with a new jersey, he was back on the court.

            “We fought and clawed for everything we could get,” said BA head coach Chandler Dennard. “Marsh was all over the place. With the injuries that we’ve got, we are going to have to outhustle people and outfight people. We don’t have any pure basketball players on this team but, as a collective unit, the kids are never going to quit. They play as hard as they possibly can for 32 minutes.”

            Bulloch (10-7 overall and 2-2 in region play) was a big underdog to the Cavaliers, who came in with a 3-0 record in Region 4-AAA action. But from the opening tip, the Gators came to play.
            Sophomore Will Rushing got the nod at point guard and hit back-to-back three-pointers in the opening quarter for a 9-2 Gator lead.

            Marsh and freshman Hunter Perry, who replaced the injured senior Themba Twala, battled toe-to-toe with APS big man Rafay Chaudhary. Marsh scored with 1:26 left to put Bulloch up 14-9 at the buzzer.

            Cavalier senior Ben Guthrie stole the show in the second quarter, scoring 10 of his team-high 18 points to keep the visitors close. But the Gator defense kept APS from running away with the game. Bulloch went into the locker room with a 28-25 lead.

            The action was fast and furious in the third.

            Senior Forrest Spence, who led the Gators with 18 points, helped Bulloch pull out to a six-point lead midway through the quarter. But the Cavs’ Christian Guthrie stepped up, scoring seven points to help knot the score at 40 by the buzzer.

            Senior Chandler Maxwell opened the fourth by stepping up and knocking down two crucial jumpers as Bulloch went back up by five, 45-40, at the 6:10 mark.

            APS slowly rallied back with Ben Guthrie at the helm and pulled two within two, 50-48, with 1:05 left.

            Christian Guthrie missed his free throws with 52.9 left but Spence hit his with 28.0 remaining to pull BA ahead by four, 52-48.

APS’s Jack Owen connected on one shot from the charity stripe at the 18.7 mark but Spence hit one of two with 4.4 left to put the game out of reach.

“Will Rushing started his first varsity game at point and it freed Forrest up to do some things,” said Dennard. “These kids are sold on being competitive and they want to win. They work so hard the last three weeks been in every game and came up short. The hard work tonight paid off. This is a big win for us.”

 

Bulloch 59, Augusta Prep 51 (Varsity Girls)


          Despite a spectacular 25-point performance from APS point guard Amanda Murphy, the Lady Gators outlasted the Lady Cavs to stay unbeaten in region play.

But the final outcome was in doubt in the first quarter when Murphy ran wild, scoring 12 points as she outhustled the Lady Gators to give the visitors a 16-13 lead.

Bulloch (17-3, 3-0) got back on track in the second quarter behind the tough inside play of sophomore Pate Lomax, junior Chelsea Oglesby and senior Anna Newton. The trio boxed out and rebounded better and stopped Murphy. Lomax had a team-high 15 points, Newton had 14 and Oglesby added 12.

Sophomore point guard Ashley Burke also got her ball handling and defense going. She engineered a rally which saw the Lady Gators take a 29-26 halftime lead.

 In the third, the trio of Lomax, Oglesby and Newton performed well, helping Bulloch to take a 37-30 lead by the 4:47 mark. Senior Mary Margaret Reeves slipped in the back door to give the Lady Gators their biggest lead of the night, 41-32, with 3:08 left.

But APS (12-3, 0-3) didn’t quit as Madeline Bacheller popped two treys to cut the lead to 43-38 by the buzzer.

Bulloch outscored the visitors 8-1 by the 6:01 mark to take a 51-39 lead and withstood the late charge by Murphy for the win.

 
            Bulloch 42, Augusta Prep 32 (B-team girls)

 
          In the first game of the afternoon, eighth grader Mikay Sands scored 13 points and sophomore German exchange student Mimi Rosenberger added eight in the win.

All three Bulloch teams will be back in action Tuesday when they travel to Milledgeville to battle region foe John Milledge Academy.