Published: November 23, 2009 11:09 pm      

Lady Bruins get win

Northwest Whitfield’s girls basketball team didn’t take long to correct the mistakes that held it up in a season-opening loss.

The Lady Bruins picked up a 57-43 win against Alpharetta on Monday in Parkview High’s Thanksgiving tournament in Lilburn, shaking off a 50-45 overtime loss to Loganville during Saturday’s tourney action.

“We came out and played better than Saturday,” said coach Margaret Stockburger, whose Lady Bruins will play again at 6 p.m. today against the host Lady Panthers. “We did a great job playing defense and a much better job of executing on offense and playing with the intensity that we were missing.”

Northwest, ranked No. 3 in the GaSports.com Class 4A coaches poll, never trailed against Alpharetta, leading 18-14 at the end of one quarter, 30-25 at halftime and 44-36 entering the final period.

Senior guard Jordi Cook, whose 3-pointer helped force overtime on Saturday, led the Lady Bruins with 14 points — all but two came from 3-pointers — and had six rebounds. Emily Trew and Quaneisha McCurty each chipped in 10 points, with Trew also contributing four assists and McCurty six rebounds.

Christy Robinson had a team-high eight rebounds.

n Arlington Christian girls 77, Christian Heritage 54: The Lady Lions suffered their second straight loss in four games to start the season, but coach Heather Lowery was pleased with their effort against the Georgia Independent Schools Association’s defending Class 2A state champions in Fairburn.

“We outscored them in the first and third quarters and the girls played very well,” Lowery said. “We tried to slow them down. They pressed us the entire game and we turned the ball over the first couple of times, but then we started breaking the press really well. And we played very good defense — we stayed in a zone, but they shot the ball really well and they had a lot of shooters — and rebounded well, too.”

The Lady Lions didn’t hold a lead past the first quarter and trailed by 16 points at halftime, but cut the deficit to 13 early in the fourth quarter.

Maggie Peeples scored a game-high 28 points and added eight rebounds for the Lady Lions, while Caty Nagel had 14 points and five rebounds. Arlington Christian was led by Meghan Downes’ 23-point performance.

• Arlington Christian boys 77, Christian Heritage 57: Will Clark scored in double figures for the fourth straight time to open the season, with a game-high 29 points, but the Lions still couldn’t make up the deficit on the road.

Landon McClure added 16 points for Christian Heritage, which fell to 1-3.

“Arlington’s the defending state champion and pretty much has its whole team back,” said Christian Heritage coach Chad Woodson. “The biggest thing we’re struggling with right now is we just got our football guys back (last) Monday and we’ve had four games and haven’t really gotten to practice, so we’re not in condition. We’ll get back to practice after the break. But we’re improving, it’s just kind of a slow start.”

Adam McLeod’s 24 points led Arlington Christian, which also got 12 from Derek Herbert and 11 from Anteh Rayee.

MS basketball

• Christian Heritage boys 37, Greater Gwinnett Christian 31: Blake Carver scored 15 points and Will Fisher chipped in 10 as the Lions picked up their first victory in three tries to start the season.

• Christian Heritage girls 49, Greater Gwinnett Christian 14: Sarah Massengale had 22 points and Ransley Defoor 13 for the Lady Lions, who improved to 2-2, while Tymber Smith scored 10 to lead Greater Gwinnett Christian.

MS wrestling

• Four wrestlers earned medals for North Whitfield as the Pioneers finished sixth among nine teams at Saturday’s Murray Junior Invitational in Chatsworth.

Alex Reynolds (100-pound weight class) had three pins on his way to a first-place finish, while Lebron Kendrick (123) was also first in his weight class. Rodrigo Martinez had two pins as he finished second at 180 and Dillon Maney was fourth at 275.

Bagley, the tourney host, won the team title and was followed by Heritage and Ringgold.