For the Lady Purple Hurricanes, their 66-29 win allowed them to pick up a season sweep of the Lady Colonels in the night's opening game, while the Canes' 59-53 victory avenged a buzzer-beating loss to the Colonels in the teams' first meeting.
Cartersville's girls jumbled their lineup for the second straight night, this time in honor of senior night. Kea Garnigan, Adrienne Green, Terika Mostella and D'Yasmine Richards were playing in their final regular season home game, and the four helped Cartersville get out to a 25-3 first-quarter lead.
"It was senior night, so we had a little bit of a different lineup. We started four seniors and [sophomore Kaelyn] Irby. They did a really good job. [There was] a lot of emotion with it being senior night and it being Cass," Lady Canes coach Donna Enis said. "A rivalry game like this is always emotional and [especially with it] being this close to the end of the season.
"Cass played really hard. They played hard."
After Cartersville's senior night lineup staked the team to a huge lead, the Lady Canes never let up, going ahead 44-10 at halftime and 63-16 at the end of the third. Cass outscored Cartersville in the fourth, 13-3, as the Lady Colonels were able to accumulate more than 10 points in a quarter for the first time all game.
Leading the way for the Lady Canes was Irby with 16 points. Other scorers for Cartersville included Garnigan, 10; Richards, 8; Jazmien Baldwin, 8; Mostella, 7; Green, 5; Katie O'Connor, 4; Stefanie Will, 3; Morgan Jones, 2; and Maya Jones, 2.
Their 37-point victory over Cass gave the Lady Canes their second win of the weekend following Friday's triumph against Murray County, a game Garnigan missed.
"Last night, it was Garnigan [that was out of the lineup]. She was sick and she didn't get to play, so we had to shift our lineup again," Enis said.
Cartersville (19-4, 9-1 Region 7B-AAA) closes the regular season out with a chance to clinch their sub-region's No. 1 seed outright Tuesday at Pickens. Tipoff is at 6 p.m.
In the nightcap, the Canes led 10-9 in the first and 25-20 at halftime. The Colonels fought back to trail by two, 36-34, going into the fourth, but Cartersville closed the deal with a 23-point final quarter.
"[There were] two things that were big time in their favor," said Cass coach Greg Scott said. "We were 0 for 13 from the 3-point line, and I think they killed us on the offensive boards."
J.R. Davis led the Canes with 19 points, while Elijah Windom dropped 17 on his former team. Other Cartersville scorers were Dalvin Penn, 7; Devin O'Connor, 6; Keith Gamble, 6; LaTerry Hardy, 2; and Ryan Davis, 2.
Leading the way for the Colonels was Kadeem Sutton, whose game-winner last time the two met gave Cass a 68-66 win. Sutton scored 18 followed Jozelle Payne with 15; Tony Mitchell with 10; Justin Reed with 6; and Najae Jackson with 4. Zeke Reed, who had 16 against the Canes on Dec. 3, went scoreless for the second straight game -- he came up empty at Northwest Whitfield in a 67-59 defeat.
"He had some looks, and he had a couple looks last night, but [it] just wasn't going down. I think he's struggling and pressing right now," Scott said of Reed. "We just need a win. We just need to get back on the upper side."
The Colonels shot 19 of 24 from the free throw line while Cartersville went 12 for 26.
Wildcats 66, South Forsyth 32
Woodland's boys basketball team collected the type of win Saturday that had its coach looking to play another game soon. Instead, a dominating 66-32 victory will have to satiate the Wildcats who have to wait more than a week before they play in the quarterfinals of the Region 7-AAAA tournament.
"I wish the tournament started tomorrow," said Woodland coach Mike Tobin after his team improved to 24-1, 13-1 in the region.
The Wildcats played the kind of defense that resulted in the type of half not often seen by one of their opponents.
"We held 'em to nine points in the first half," Tobin said. "We haven't had anybody at Woodland hold a team to single digits in a half."
"They came off a tough loss last night. They lost to Johns Creek," he continued. "It seemed like they were a little flat to say the least."
Woodland held an 18-7 lead after the first 8 minutes and then kept the War Eagles to just two points -- both free throws -- in the second as the lead grew to 35-9 at the half. The Wildcats then enjoyed their biggest scoring quarter of the night in the third, where they scored 21 to lead 56-19.
"Starting with the second against Adairsville [Friday night] these are the sixth best quarters we've played on both ends of the floor," Tobin said. "[We] put a good game together. They're [South Forsyth] in the bottom of the conference. We did a good job of playing hard."
Corey Tobin led Woodland with 19 points, including five 3-pointers, and Greg Murphy (12), Chandler Royal (7), Deo Adams (6), Xavier Niblet (5), R.J. Williams (5), Tae Covington (5), Carrod Watson (5) and Brandon Thompson (2) also scored for the Wildcats.
Woodland, which is seeded first in its region, doesn't have to play the quarterfinals of the region tournament. The region tournament begins Saturday at Cass High.
FRIDAY'S GAMES
Lady Canes 63, Murray County 56
Adrienne Green snared 15 rebounds as Cartersville took care of business and grabbed its second win of the season over Murray County, 63-56.
Green also scored 8 points and notched a steal in her night's work.
Other Lady Canes contributing to the victory were Kaelyn Irby, 23 points, one rebound, eight assists, three steals; Stefanie Will, 15 points, one rebound, two steals; Katie O'Connor, 8 points, nine rebounds, four steals; Terika Mostella, 6 points, five rebounds, two steals; D'Yasmine Richards, 1 point, four rebounds; Jazmien Baldwin, two points, five rebounds.
Helping the Murray cause were Kellie Newport, 16 points; McKenzie Carroll, 11 points.
"It was one of those nights where Murray came out and really played well," Cartersville coach Donna Enis acknowledged. "We had a good run in the third quarter and pulled away."
Lady Tigers 40, Lady Wildcats 24
Adairsville's girls basketball team collected win No. 6 Friday, 40-24, spoiling Senior Night for county rival Woodland and tripling its win total for a year ago.
The Lady Tigers led 7-2 after the first quarter and maintained a five-point lead going into halftime, 14-9. In the second half, Adairsville again held the Lady Wildcats to less than four points in a quarter as the visitors established a 24-13 advantage by the end of the third.
Cassidy Howren and Mallorie Collum led the Lady Tigers with 11 points each, and Stephanie Kuhrt added 9.
"[We were] pretty balanced [Friday] night," first-year Adairsville coach Kent Howard said of his team's scoring.
The victory ended a six-game skid for the Lady Tigers (6-16), who twice lost by a couple of points during that stretch.
"We're young so it's gonna equal inconsistency sometimes, but we're making progress. I'm proud of the girls," Howard said.
Adairsville had dropped its first meeting with Woodland on Dec. 3, a 44-39 defeat that the Lady Tigers hoped to avenge.
"All wins are good wins. It's always nice to beat a county rival. They beat us the first time by five, so our kids were hungry to get after 'em again," Howard added. "It was important for us to get some confidence before going into next week's stretch. ... We needed some momentum going into next week."
On Monday, Adairsville (1-10 Region 7A-AA) hosts sub-region foe Coosa, which it lost to 64-62 on Jan. 13. The game, which tips off at 7 p.m., will be the last game of the regular season for the Lady Tigers before a Region 7A-AA tournament commences the following week.
The regular season finale will be important in determining Adairsville's seeding for the sub-region tournament, Howard said.
Wildcats 65, Tigers 41
Woodland erupted for nearly 30 third-quarter points Friday in its 65-41 senior night win over county rival Adairsville, turning what had been a close ballgame into a runaway victory for the Wildcats.
Mike Tobin, Woodland head coach, said his team didn't match the Tigers' play early on, an effort he compared to another of the Wildcats' opponents this season -- Northwest Whitfield.
"Those are two of the teams in this area, northwest Georgia, that are gonna play hard, hard, hard," Tobin said of Adairsville and the Bruins. "The first half was really a draw. I felt like they outhustled us."
The Tigers maintained a slight lead, 9-8, over Woodland going into the second but trailed by five -- 24-19 -- heading into the locker room. In the third, the Wildcats notched 29 points to seven for Adairsville as they eased their path to victory.
Tobin lauded the Tigers, including Zach Coker, who he said had five or six blocks, and Austin Harrell, a "big, physical, strong kid," he said.
"They got a good squad," the Woodland coach added. "They can do well in their region tournament."
Contributing for the Wildcats were Corey Tobin, 16 points, eight rebounds, three assists; Greg Murphy, 15 points; Xavier Niblet, 14 points, three assists; R.J. Williams, 4 points, five steals; Deo Adams, 5 points; Brandon Thompson, 6 points; Chandler Royal, 2 points, three assists; and Tae Covington, 3 points.