Thad Burgess and his Dawson County boys’ basketball team are off to a great start. The Tigers picked up two huge wins at home last week defeating Region 8-AA crossover opponent, Oglethorpe County 64-56 on Tuesday, and Cross Keys 80-30 last Friday.
The team is currently 2-0 for the season.
Dawson played in the Hebron Thanksgiving Tournament Monday, Nov. 23 against Mt. Pisgah High School. Scores were unavailable as of press time.
The team will travel to Cross Keys High School next Tuesday, Dec. 1 for a rematch with the Indians.
Dawson County trailed after one quarter of play 14-10 to Oglethorpe. The Tigers bounced back to take a 27-18 lead at the half.
“We struggled early with our shooting, but our defense and rebounding held up until shots started to fall in the second quarter,” Burgess said.
The Patriots never gave up. Oglethorpe came out of the locker room after halftime and outscored Dawson in the third quarter 19-17 to cut the Tiger lead to seven points, 44-37.
Oglethorpe came back to tie the game with two minutes to go in the fourth quarter.
Timely free throw shooting by the Tigers allowed them to pull away over the last two minutes, to come away with the nine point win, 64-56.
“I was very impressed how we shot free throws when the score was tied with only two minutes remaining,” Burgess said.
The team was 17 for 25 from the charity stripe.
“I was really pleased with our entire team effort,” said Burgess. “Stephen (Scaife), Jacob (Evans) and Kaleb (Holbrook) played the entire game.
“Oglethorpe is very athletic and talented. It feels good to get our first win in the region. Oglethorpe will beat a lot of teams this season.”
Scaife led the Tigers in scoring against Oglethorpe. The junior point guard knocked down 25 points to lead all scorers.
Junior guard Jacob Evans also had a big night against the Patriots. Evans had a double-double with 23 points and 15 rebounds.
Also scoring for the Tigers were: Kaleb Holbrook-5; Levi Wilson-5; Logan Lewis-2 and Tyler Dominy-2.
DD Stewart led Oglethorpe with 16 points.
The Tigers bounced back with a resounding 50-point win over Cross Keys last Friday night at the Ford E. Phillips Gymnasium, 80-30.
Dawson never trailed in the contest, and led 32-16 at the half.
The Tigers poured on the defensive pressure in the second half, allowing Cross Keys only nine points in the third quarter and five points in the final quarter, to cruise to its second win of the season.
Burgess got a chance to clear his bench and get his subs valuable playing time.
Scaife and Evans, once again, had double figures for the Tigers scoring 15 and 20 points respectively. Freshman Tyler Dominy and Kaleb Holbrook also had good offensive games for the Tigers.
“We played really well and unselfish. I like our attitude and how we had really good intensity,” said Burgess. “I’m very pleased with our effort, but we still have a long way to go.”
Also contributing to the scoring for the Tigers were: Stephen Johnson-8; Dominy-9; Holbrook-7; Tyler King-3; Gunnar Armstrong-2; Lewis-6 and Grant Shope-3.