The week did not get off to a great start for the Dawson County Tigers varsity basketball team. Playing without head coach Thad Burgess, due to an ejection, the Tigers lost a close contest to Fellowship Christian, 44-41, on Tuesday. It was the Tigers first loss of the season.
Things perked up over the weekend with two big wins over Tech High School, 100-29, on Friday and Towns County, 78-42, on Saturday.
Dawson County currently stands at 6-1 on the season.
Fellowship Christian jumped out to a 20-12 halftime lead against the Tigers.
Under assistant coach Wes Greer, Dawson mounted a second half comeback and outscored the Paladins 29-24. But it wasn't enough as Fellowship (4-2) was able to hang on to the 3-point win.
Tyler Dominy led the Tigers in scoring with 13 points.
Lucas Pain also scored in double digits with 10 points for Dawson County.
Tigers scorers: Dominy - 13 points, Lucas Pain - 10 points, Will Anglin - 8 points, Jonathan Sanderson - 4 points and Camron Chester - 6 points.
The Paladins were led in scoring by Parker Pettett with 18 points and Roger Rickman with 12 points.
Tech High School visited Dawson County on Friday night. The Tigers took out their frustrations with a pounding of the Titans to come away with the 71-point win.
Dawson County took control early by opening up with a 23-10 first quarter advantage.
The Tigers extended the score at halftime to 50-19 and never looked back.
Dawson scored 20-plus points in each quarter as the team cruised to the win.
Tyler Dominy and Lucas Pain scored 23 and 20 points respectively to lead the Tigers in scoring.
Tigers scorers: Dominy - 23 points, Pain - 20 points, Sanderson - 9 points, Bruce Clark - 8 points, Jackson Putnam - 6 points, Gunnar Armstrong - 4 points, Mitchell Putnam - 4 points and Grant Shope - 3 points.
Ronald McClough led Tech (0-7) with 8 points.
Burgess was back on the bench for Saturday's game with Towns County.
The game was the second meeting of the year between the two schools. Dawson won easily in the first game by a 64-22 score.
It was much of the same on Saturday.
Dawson jumped out to a 35-16 halftime advantage over the Indians (2-7) and comfortably won by a decisive 36-point margin.
Dawson had five players score in double digits. The team was led by Lucas Pain with 17 points. Tigers Tyler Dominy - 13 points, Will Anglin - 12 points, Bruce Clark - 11 points and Jackson Putnam - 12 points poured it on the Indians.
Also scoring for Dawson County were: Camron Chester - 4 points, Gunnar Armstrong - 1 point and Jonathan Sanderson - 6 points.
Rylan Alback led Towns County in scoring with 6 points.
"After not playing very well on Thursday in Roswell, we came back and played much better over the weekend. Offensively, we shot much better and finished more plays. It was nice to see five players score in double figures at Towns on Saturday. As we get more players involved in the offense and making contributions we will be more difficult to defend. We were able to play all 10 players on a regular basis in the weekend games. This of course helps our depth, but also rewards those for their practice efforts," Burgess said.
Dawson County traveled to Gilmer County (6-1) Tuesday afternoon. The only loss Gilmer has had this season was against the Tigers, 55-48, on Dec. 2.
The Tigers will then play neighboring Lumpkin County (1-7) at 8:30 p.m. on Friday at home.
It will be "Fill Up the Ford" on Friday as the Tigers renew a rivalry with the Indians.
Dawson will then head to Columbus for the Pacelli High School Christmas Tournament on Monday and Tuesday. The Tigers will play Schley County (0-4) on Monday at 4:30 p.m.
In the other bracket in the tournament is Pacelli (0-5) and Tech (0-7).