By Joe Joe Wright

joejoe.wright@cordeledispatch.com

It was physical and it was fast break all night. The Crisp County Cougars beat the Turner County Rebels 59-53 on Tuesday night in Cordele.

The Cougars  were led by # 10 Quentavious  Dean with a blistering 33 points and Ijon Owens who threw in another 9 points for the victors. In a game the Cougars never fell behind in, pressure was the name of the game. Turner who has a very good team as well played a lot of full court pressure as did the Cougars. Crisp however, won that battle as they came away with a 9 to 1 steal ratio over the Rebels. The 23 overall rebounds that Crisp had, ( which is really rather low) can be attributed to the fact the Cougars shot decently as a team from the field with 54%. Passing the ball around a good bit looking for the best shot. The Cougars as a team had 9 assists  and shot a very good 80% from 3 point range. At the line the Cougars dipped a little down to 55%.

Crisp opened up a 14 to 8 lead over Turner in the first period and never let off the gas beating Turner in the 2^nd stanza  17 to 12 to take a halftime lead of 31-20. Crisp struggled a little out of the gate in the 2^nd half allowing Turner to pull within 5 points of the lead but in the 4^th quarter Crisp poured on the points out racing Turner 18-17 to get the 59-53 win. “ We got some good shooting from the field and the boys worked the ball in for the good shot tonight ,”said Stacy Stephens Cougar Head Mentor. The Cougars will be in Ashburn starting on the 26^th of December for 3 days to play in the Turner County Christmas Tournament. This win puts the Cougars at 6-3  overall and 3-3 in region play.

The lady Cougars playing a very  good Turner County squad lost 49-20 and dropped their record to 2-9 over all and 1-4 in the region. Chadaya Miller dropped in11 points for the Lady Cougars aided by Jamiria Simmons. The ladies garnered in 16 rebounds and 8 steals. But the biggest statistic of the game is the 37 turn overs committed by the Cougars on the night.” We missed a lot of shots and made a lot of  turnovers against a good team, it’s the little things that if we need to start doing, and if we do them it will get us more W’s, “ said Nina Shannon Head Coach. The ladies travel down to Colquitt County to play in their Christmas Invitational on the 28^th of December.