The first official week of the 2008-09 Georgia high school basketball season in in the books. While a number of teams elected to take the extra week of practice and will not play their first games until the coming week (or even December in some cases); a large number of programs got the ball rolling with tournament games and non-region matchups.
Below are some of top performances, notables, and observations from Week 1 Action:
If the first game was any indication of the type of season Malcolm Jackson is going to have in 08-09, then it is going to be a terrific one. The 6’ 1 Senior Guard from Sandy Creek High School dropped 40 points in their opening win over Class AA #1 Greater Atlanta Christian at the Parkview Tip-Off Classic. Jackson shot the lights out , hitting six treys and going 12-14 from the charity stripe. Take into account his effort with that of teammate Emerson Williams’ 23 points and the duo combined for 63 points. That is a heck of a combo scoring wise at the high school level…..Miller Grove and GA Tech signee Mfon Udofia opened up what should be a stellar Senior campaign with 27 points in a 94-56 blowout win over East Coweta …Miller Grove and Sandy Creek will matchup in the Semi’s of the Parkview Tournament on Monday night….Two Gwinnett teams (Berkmar and Wesleyan) who were very strong last season but were expected to struggle somewhat this year both surprised with their play in week 1. Berkmar came out on knocked off a talented Peachtree Ridge team in OT and then turned around beat Kell to start 2-0. Seniors Nick Henry and Aamir Kelliehan stepped up with good play for Berkmar Coach Tommy McWorter. The Wesleyan School, who won the Class AA State Championship last year, only returns a couple of players who logged any significant court time in last season’s title run. However, that didn’t seem to bother the team much as they stepped onto Parkview’s home court and won a thriller 56-55 over the Class AAAAA opponent. 2010 Shooting Guard Griffin Schamp had a real nice game, capping off his 26 point performance by hitting the winning bucket in the game’s final seconds……Loganville is a Team to Watch in Class AAAA. They are strong fundamental squad led by Head Coach Joel Colley, have good depth, and very solid guard play. They pounded Tri-Cities in their opener at the Parkview Tournament. Senior Guard Tyler Gunnett (who led them with 18 pts.) is an intelligent, well rounded player with a good looking stroke….Loganville will face Wesleyan in the other Semi-Final of the Parkview Tourney…..Name to remember - Pebblebrook Freshman Damien Wilson. The Class of 2012 rookie scored 22 points in his first high school game for the Cobb County school (which was a 69-56 victory over Druid Hills)…..Terreco Stephens has gotten off to a very hot start for Therrell H.S.. He scored 42 points versus Cedar Grove in the opener and followed up that with a 28 point performance versus Towers H.S.. Both games were victories for Therrell….Milton H.S. might be young, but they have are very talented and showed a preview of the potential they have with a lopsided win over Brookwood at the Chestatee Tip-off Tournament. Milton Coach David Boyd, who has four State Titles under his belt, must be very excited about this group….. As for the State’s College Basketball action: Major props go out to the Mercer University program. What a week the Atlantic Sun Program had. First they upset SEC teams Alabama and Auburn on the road. Then they a lose a very closely contested OT game to GA Tech (which they had a chance to win in regulation’s final seconds). Mercer’s First Year Head Coach Bob Hoffman seems to really have the Bears on the right track and it should be interesting to see if they can keep up the strong play in A-Sun Conference Play. Former Wheeler standout James Florence stepped up huge for Mercer in the all three games, averaging 25 PPG in the stretch….Shorter College picked up a nice early season 77-61 win over Auburn University-Montgomery on Saturday evening. Auburn-Montgomery came into the game ranked #21 Nationally in NAIA…..After a opening OT win versus cross town rival Emory Univ. earlier in the week , Oglethorpe Univ. went up to Philadelphia, PA this weekend and won the Equinox Tip-off Classic. Phil Ponder's Oglethorpe team is now 3-0 on the young season.
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