The Dawson County Lady Tiger basketball team started the new year in a big way. The team finished the week with two wins and one loss.

Dawson picked up big region victories over Oglethorpe County, 37-30, and East Jackson, 44-35, before dropping a game to non-region foe Sonoraville, 42-32.

With the wins, Dawson is currently 4-8 overall.

This week, Head Coach Steve Sweat and his team will travel to Creekview Saturday, and then host a huge Region 8-AA match-up with Rabun County on Tuesday, Jan. 20. The team will travel to Union County tonight.

On Tuesday, the Lady Tigers made the long journey to Lexington to face the Lady Patriots (2-8) from Oglethorpe County.

Cheyenne Bennett had a huge game for Dawson, finishing with a double-double with 11 points and 15 rebounds.

“Cheyenne was very strong on the inside for us,” commented Sweat. “As a team, I thought we did a good job of fighting back any runs by Oglethorpe.”

The Lady Tigers led the entire game, never relinquishing their lead.

Dawson went into intermission with a 19-12 advantage and never looked back.

The offense was spread out among several Lady Tiger players. Contributing on the offensive end were: Jessi Phillips with 8 points; Christian Daniel-7 points; Judith Hall-4 points; Kimberly Wallace-3 points; Morgan Bennett and Morgan Huber with 2 points each.

Friday night saw the Lady Tigers play host to East Jackson (2-8) in a big 8-AA match-up. Dawson took command early and led 11-5 after one quarter of play.

The Lady Tigers continued to pour on the defensive pressure and took a 21-11 lead into the locker room at halftime.

East Jackson came out on fire in the third quarter and outscored the Lady Tigers 15-8. The Lady Eagles cut into Dawson’s lead  and trailed only 29-26 after three periods of play.

The Lady Tigers were able to withstand the East Jackson rally and come away with the 44-35 win.

“This was a big win for our team,” Sweat said. “Our kids played really well and we did a great job on offense of spreading out the scoring.”

Morgan Bennett, Jessi Phillips and Cheyenne Bennett each contributed 9 points to lead the Lady Tigers. Christian Daniel and Judith Hall each added 6 points. Freshman Kimberly Wallace tallied 4 points and Jade Hyde had 1 point in the win.

Nikki McGinnis led East Jackson with 8 points.

The Lady Tigers had to regroup on Saturday as Sonoraville (8-5) traveled to the Ford E. Phillips Center to face a hot Dawson County team.

Earlier in the season Dawson lost to the Lady Phoenix 52-47 in a close contest.

Dawson put up a good fight, but this time the result was the same, as Sonoraville pulled out a 42-32 win over the Lady Tigers.

Morgan Bennett led the Lady Tigers in scoring with 8 points. Judith Hall and Jessi Phillips chipped in 7 points in the losing effort. Natalie Parker and Christian Daniel added 4 points for the Lady Tigers and Cheyenne Bennett had 2 points.

Noelle DeFoor was the leading scorer for Sonoraville with 10 points.

E-mail Pam Jacobs at sports@dawsonnews.com.