It was a tough weekend for Dawson County High School Head Basketball Coach Thad Burgess and his Tigers.

Dawson dropped its first Region 8-AA contest to Riverside Military Academy Friday in the Ford E. Phillips Center, 70-56.

Saturday, the Tigers lost their second game in a row when they traveled to Cherokee County to face #8-ranked, AAA, Creekview. Creekview used a 3-point barrage and won the contest 62-39.

Earlier in the week, Dawson was on the road to Blairsville to face a stubborn Union County team. This game has had a heated past over the last few years.

Once again the game lived up to the billing, in what may be one of the lowest scoring games in recent memory.

Burgess and his team escaped with a 37-27 win over the Panthers.

Dawson held a slim 24-23 advantage at half. The Tigers tenacious 3-2 match-up zone disrupted Union (6-9; 1-4) in the second half, as the Panthers only managed 10 points. Union scored only 4 points in the third quarter and 6 in the final quarter of play.

The Tigers were led by Blythe Chester who had a double-double with 14 points and 11 rebounds.

“Blythe had seven big points in the fourth quarter that really helped us to seal away the win,” Burgess said about his senior post player.

“That is three years in a row up there and six straight wins over them,” Burgess said.

“It was a big road win to get our sub region started with. Union was trying to slow it down, which was okay with us after we got in foul trouble in the second quarter.

In the third quarter we were able to get some steals off our press and speed up the game. We nailed some free throws at the end to get the win,” he added.

Union was led in scoring by Trey Smith with 8 points.

Tiger scorers: Chester-14; Ben Daniels-8; Stephen Scaife-6; Stephen Johnson-3; Kaleb Holbrook-3; Seth Stowers-2; Jacob Evans-1.

Riverside (4-5; 3-2) boasted a very tall backline as they traveled to Dawsonville on Friday.

With the likes of  Dylen Setzkorn 6’5,” John Ogguniyq 6’7,” and Brandon McKinney  6’6,” Dawson had its hands full.

The Tigers accepted the challenge and did a good job on the boards until the fourth quarter when Riverside exploded for 30 points to take the 14-point victory.

“They may be the best team in the region,” said Burgess. “They are huge up front and they just dominated the boards in the second half.”

The Tigers had big scoring nights from Jacob Evans with 23 points and Stephen Scaife with 19 points. Dawson connected on 15, 3-point shots, Evans had seven three’s and Scaife nailed four long bombs.

Evans also pulled down 8 rebounds for the Tigers.

Riverside placed three players in double digits, Richard Tribble with 17, Steven Frady with 15 and McKinney with 13 points respectively.

Tiger scorers: Evans-23; Scaife-19; Stowers-6; Daniels-5; Holbrook-3; Dodd-2.

Burgess and his weary troops played a very talented Creekview team on Saturday.

It was obvious that the Tigers’ legs were tired as the Grizzlies came away with a 23-point win.

The Grizzlies beat Dawson at their own game connecting on 9 three-point shots, while the Tigers only managed to hit 5 three-pointers.

Creekview (13-4) jumped out to a quick 26-7 lead after one quarter and put it on cruise control the rest of the game. The Grizzlies continued to pour on the offense extending their lead to 39-21 at halftime.

The Tigers had difficulty shooting the ball and were unable to generate much offense in the second half and were outscored 23-19 for the team’s second straight defeat.

“Creekview is very athletic,” Burgess said. “They are one of the best teams we will face all season. We just looked very tired.”

Scaife led the Tigers in scoring with 11 points.

Stephen Johnson, Mark Dodd and Ben Daniels each contributed 5 rebounds.

Creekview placed three players in double figures, led by Austin Younker with 16 points. Brandon Perkins and Hart Alumada each had 13 points for the Grizzlies.

Tiger scorers: Scaife-11; Chester-8; Holbrook-8; Stowers-5; Daniels-5; Ryan Morawsky-2.

The Tigers host Banks County this Friday in a huge sub-region contest. The Leopards come into the contest with a 12-3 record. Tip-off will be at 8:30 p.m.

“We would like every body to come out and support us this Friday. It should be a great game,” Burgess remarked.

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