“The team survived,” said Head Coach Chad Pittman, describing last week’s varsity boys basketball game against Union County.  

“You know what they say, I’d rather have an ugly win than a pretty loss,” said Pittman.

The boys pulled out a 48-45 win against the Union County Panthers Jan. 9 but struggled with consistency; something Pittman hopes will improve this week as the team takes on Greater Atlanta Christian and Lumpkin County.

“We just played up and down and didn’t have a lot of consistency,” said Pittman.

Luckily, the team came back with enough intensity in the last four minutes of play to make some baskets and take home a win.

Junior Trey Pruitt was the game’s standout and the reason the team came off the court successful. Pruitt scored 12 points and scored the game-winning basket.

“I was really proud of him,” said Pittman. “He really stepped up this year.”

Although the team pulled out a win, Pittman says the team did not play their best during the Jan. 9 competition. He described the game as a game the Tigers escaped or survived. 

“We hopefully know by surviving Tuesday to play better this week,” said Pittman. “We can play so much better than we did. We have to play much better.” 

Union County was 12-3 going into the game and with the boys’ win it puts Dawson County 5-0 in the region, so last week’s victory – although a narrow escape – was a big game for the Tigers.

This week the Tigers will have to shape up and play much better than their performance against Union as Pittman anticipates hard games later this week.

Yesterday’s match-up in Norcross against Greater Atlanta Christian was cancelled Tuesday afternoon due to the threat of inclement weather. It will be rescheduled for a later date. 

Later in the week, Dawson County will host GAC Thursday in a rescheduled game that was cancelled in December due to the snow storm that hit Georgia. 

“For us to do well we’re going to control the tempo of the game,” said Pittman. “We’re going to really have to play with intensity. They’re really good but they’re beatable.”

On Friday, the Tigers will face off against Lumpkin County. It is also the homecoming game, and the homecoming court will be presented between the varsity girls and boys games.