Division Tournament week!

Alright, the playoffs are starting and season’s will be ending this week. Below are the division tournament brackets for Union County schools.

Division 1-4A at Itawamba CC
Tuesday
4:00 p.m. — #4 Shannon v #5 Itawamba AHS (G)
5:30 p.m. — #3 Tishomingo Co v #6 Itawamba AHS (B)
7:00 p.m. — #3 North Pontotoc v #6 Tishomingo Co (G)
8:30 p.m. — #4 North Pontotoc v #5 Shannon (B)

Thursday
4:00 p.m. — #2 Pontotoc v North Pontotoc/Tish Co (G)
5:30 p.m. — #2 Pontotoc v  Tish Co/IAHS (B)
7:00 p.m. — #1 New Albany v Shannon/IAHS (G)
8:30 p.m. — #1 New Albany v North Pontotoc/Shannon (B)
Friday
4:00 p.m. — Girls Consolation
5:30 p.m. — Boys Consolation
7:00 p.m. — Girls Championship
8:30 p.m. — Boys Championship

Class 2A
Division 1-2A at Mantachie
Tuesday
4 p.m. – (G) Ashland vs. Baldwyn
5:30 p.m. – (B) Baldwyn vs. Mantachie
7 p.m. – (G) East Union vs. Hickory Flat

Wednesday
4 p.m. – (B)  East Union vs. Ashland
5:30 p.m. – (G) Walnut vs. Mantachie
7 p.m. – (B) Walnut vs. New Site

Thursday
4 p.m. – (G)  East Union-Hickory Flat winner vs. Walnut-Mantachie winner
5:30 p.m. – (B) Hickory Flat vs. Ashland vs. East Union winner
7 p.m. – (G) New Site vs. Ashland-Baldwyn winner
8:30 p.m. -(B) Baldwyn-Mantachie winner vs. New Site-Walnut winner

Friday
4 p.m. – Girls consolation
5:30 p.m. – Boys consolation
7 p.m. – Girls championship
8:30 p.m. – Boys championship

Division 2-1A at West Union
Tuesday
4 p.m. – (G) Myrtle vs. Blue Mountain
5:30 p.m. – (B) Potts Camp vs. Blue Mountain
7:p.m. – West Union vs. Ingomar
8:30 p.m. – Byers vs. West Union
Thursday
4 p.m. – (G) Potts Camp vs. Myrtle-Blue Mountain  winner
5:30 p.m. – (B) Myrtle vs. Byers -West Union winner
7 p.m. – (G) Byers vs. West Union-Ingomar winner
8:30 p.m. (B) Ingomar vs. Potts Camp-Blue Mountain winner
Friday
4 p.m. – Girls consolation
5:30 p.m. – Boys consolation
7 p.m. – Girls championship
8:30 p.m. – Boys championship

Schedule for this weekend’s Renasant Bank Lady Challenge

After a postponement from last weekend, January 30, the Robertson’s Sportswear/Renasant Bank Cancer Relay For Life Lady Challenge will take place this Saturday, February 6 at Ingomar. Here is the revised schedule for the tounament:

2:00 p.m. East Union vs. North Pontotoc

3:30 p.m. West Union vs. Alcorn Central

5:00 p.m. Ingomar vs. St. George

Johnson signs with Northeast football

New Albany running back Eric Johnson signed with Northeast Mississippi Community College Wednesday morning. He is joined by his grandfather, James F. Clarke and (Back L-R) NAHS head coach Ron Price and NAHS principal Jay Foster. Johnson was the leading rusher for the Bulldogs in 2009 with 954 yards (79.5 Y/G) and nine touchdowns.

Wilson leads Hawks to division win

In a game that was close for all but the fourth quarter, Myrtle battled for a big division win against Potts Camp, 75-58 Tuesday night.
The Hawks built an early 9-6 lead, but the story for the Cardinals was the play of Ladarrius Beard, who single handily kept Potts Camp in the contest, scoring nine of the Cardinals’ 13 first quarter points.

David Wilson scored 16 fourth quarter points to lead Myrtle to a 75-68 win over Potts Camp Tuesday night. The senior finished with 27 points in the divisional win.

Robert Montgomery stepped up for Myrtle in the second quarter, pacing the Hawks with 10 points, helping Myrtle build an early six point lead before Beard quickly erased that and the Cardinals took the lead late in the frame after a basket by Jemarques Foster. Montgomery would make a shot at the end of the half to give Myrtle the one point advantage at the break.
Down by three, Potts Camp tied the game off a triple by Jonathan Falkner, and the Cardinals would take the lead one more time off a basket by Foster before Montgomery and Jimel Judon put the Hawks back on top at the end of the third.
Running out of gas, the Cardinals could not control David Wilson, whose 16 fourth quarter points led the Hawks as they easily put the game away in the final minutes.
Wilson finished with 27 points, while Montgomery scored 19. Judon finished with 11 for the Hawks.
Beard was the leading scorer for Potts Camp with 24 points.
In the girls game, the Lady Hawks held off a late comeback by Potts Camp, defeating the Lady Cardinals 55-50.
Aspriona Gilbert led Myrtle with 22 points, while Halle Knowles scored 3 and Rhagen Hopper 11 points.
Potts Camp’s Kenyotta Jenkins led the Lady Cardinals with 23 points in the loss.

Down but not out- Lady ‘Dawgs 24-0

Missing two key defensive components, the Lady ‘Dawgs are still winning and winning big, as they defeated Tishomingo County 64-40 Tuesday night.
With scoring from four different players, New Albany built a 10-0 lead before Tish. scored their first basket. The Lady Braves would go on a 4:19 scoring drought beginning late in the first quarter as the Lady ‘Dawgs went ahead 22-6.
Leading 32-10 at the break, Micha Washington led the Lady Bulldogs scoring nine third quarter points.
Washington finished with a game-high 23 for New Albany, while Jazmine Spears added 15 points.
New Albany improves to 24-0 (10-0) with one game remaining in the regular season and a first round bye in next week’s division tournament. The Lady Bulldogs are in much need of the week off, as they are now without starting point guard Porche White and reserve Paris Sanders, who are both sidelined with injuries.
“We’re short handed right now and both Porche and Paris have provided defensive intensity and presence on the court for us throughout the season,” NAHS head coach John Stroud said. “We’re not hurting in scoring, but there are other things those two have brought to us that we’re missing right now.”
Stroud also talked about ball handling, as both White and Sanders are among the top passers on the team with a combined 116 assists.
“Right now we’re just working on ball handing and getting the ball down the court,” Stroud said. “We’ve lost two of our best ball handlers and they’re both so good at pressuring the ball. Our hope is to have both of them back in time for North Half.”
The Bulldogs also picked up a win over Tish. County, defeating the Braves, 81-42.
Hayden Floyd and Tadaious Coburn each scored 13 for New Albany, who are now 18-7 (10-0).
New Albany will be on the road Thursday playing against Tupelo before taking the week off in preparation for the 1-4A division semifinals next Thursday, February 11 in Fulton.

Bulldogs fall to Mustangs

NA's Edgar Fernandez battles with Center Hill's Paul Chan during the second round of the playoffs Monday night.

Sometimes one goal is all it takes, and for Center Hill Monday night, a corner kick in the second half lifted the Mustangs to the 4A North Half Championship after a 1-0 win at New Albany.

The Bulldogs defense held tough throughout the first half, as the Mustangs could not capitalize off of several corner kicks and eight New Albany penalties. Center Hill retuned the favor on their defensive end, only allowing one Bulldog shot, as both teams were scoreless at the break.
“They all have a drive within them to not let that ball in the goal, and they’re all so competitive,” NAHS head coach Taylor Nichols said of his defense. “They played so hard, and I’m proud of them. They definitely went above my expectations.”
“We miss a lot of good, open shots that we should have finished, but we hung in and stayed in the game,” Center Hill head coach Darrow Anderson added.
New Albany started the second half firing with five shots, but it was Mustangs’ Paul Chan who connected with a corner kick at the 31:30 mark, and that was all Center Hill would need to advance to the next round.
“It was a great win, and we were very tough and hard fought,” Anderson said. “We had a good shot in off the goal kick, but the game could have gone either way.”
A direct opposite of the first half, it was the Mustangs’ defense that was strong in the second half, as the Bulldogs ended with 12 shots, three on goal in the loss.
“Obviously, we’re disappointed because you want to win every game,” Nichols said. “We had opportunities to put the ball in the goal and we didn’t capitalize. That’s what hurt us.”
Despite the loss, the Bulldogs have a lot to be proud of this season, winning their first divisional title since 1997 as well as winning their first playoff game since 1997 and 1998.
“It will take a couple days to get over this, but they’ve set the standard for years to come,” Nichols said. “It’s a great group of guys, and they played hard tonight. It was a great year, we have a lot of great guys coming back and we’re going to start reloading next week. We’re going to miss our seniors, and I told them that there’s no where I would rather be than here, coaching them.”
New Albany ends the season at 10-5 (5-0 Div. 1-4A).

This is what happens when games are canceled….

So I got into a discussion with my friend, Ryan Whittington (pictured above) during dinner earlier this evening. He mentioned seeing the blog and noted the fact that he came up with the name but is not credited for this anywhere on the site. I do not remember this ever happening, but I will take his word for it, and here is where I credit him.

Thank you, Ryan.

Weekend cancelations

I already have everything posted on Twitter (check out the sidebar on the right), but just in case you haven’t heard yet, here’s a list of all the cancelations for county games this weekend:

Basketball

Friday games:

Pine Grove @ East Union- no make-up date announced

Ingomar @ West Union- will be made up on Thursday, Feb. 4. This is also Senior Night for West Union.

Itawamba @ NAHS- will be made up on Monday, Feb. 1. Because of this, the Myrtle-New Albany make-up date has been canceled.

Saturday games:

Prentiss/Union Clash (boys) has been canceled

Robertson’s Sportswear Tournament (girls) has been postponed. Darrell Robertson said he is looking at Saturday, February 6 as a possible make-up day.

Soccer

New Albany-Center Hill has been rescheduled for Monday, Feb. 1 at 6:00 p.m. at the Sportsplex.

Ingomar’s biggest fan

Student, administrator, worker, counselor and friend. Many words come to mind when describing Tate McCollum, who is one of the most recognizable faces in the Ingomar community. From the hallways at school to any and every sporting event, McCollum is there shaking hands and hugging everyone he sees.

McCollum has been a facet at Ingomar sporting events for the last six years, most notably seen on the bench at basketball games with coaches Norris Ashley and Richard Byrd. When talking to both coaches and Ingomar principal Kenny Roberts, stories flood from the trio about the help and inspiration McCollum brings to the athletic program.

“We couldn’t do without him. He doesn’t get loud or anything, he just sits there and he helps you out with who has how many fouls and how many time outs we have left,” Ashley said.

“He’s a very positive influence on everyone, the players and kids. You can’t feel bad when you see Tate, and if you do, you’ll feel better once you see him,” Byrd added.

Ashley notes one story in particular that is often told by his son, Jonathan that involved a nine-year old McCollum running a junior high basketball scrimmage in Jonathan’s absence.

Tate is all smiles as he meets with Ingomar fans before their game versus H.W. Byers

“Jonathan saw Matt Purvis, who was then a seventh grader, and asked him what they did in gym that day,” Ashley explained. “Matt told him, ‘Well we ran a scrimmage.’ Jonathan asked him why the did that, and Matt said ‘Cause Tate told us to.’”

And the coaches have rubbed off on McCollum over the years, as the 15-year old can be seen mimicking his mentors on the bench.

“Coach Ashley will put his hands behind his head and lean back. If something’s going bad, Tate’s going to be doing the same,” Roberts said. “He does a lot of things that Coach Ashley and Coach Byrd do, but he hasn’t thrown a clipboard yet.”

“That’s because we won’t give him one,” Ashley laughed, “but Coach Byrd is the only one that does that anyway.”

McCollum’s work is seen on more than just gameday, as he picks up absentees during school, along with helping in the school store.

“It’s real fun to me,” McCollum said. “Mr. Roberts has been really nice to me, and gave me this opportunity.”

Also an athlete himself, McCollum plays Top Notch T-Ball at the New Albany Sportsplex, but he is quick to say which sport is his favorite.

“What I love about Ingomar is basketball,” McCollum said. “I love sports. It’s just a lot of fun”

His love for the game runs so deep that McCollum was given the honor of presenting the Falcons with the Union County Championship trophy two weeks ago, a tribute that Roberts said was well deserving.

“I think that meant as much to the kids and the people in the stands as it meant to Tate,” Roberts said. “That’s just Tate. He’s our goodwill ambassador.”

McCollum has a few more years before graduating from Ingomar, but even then a spot is sure to be made for him, making him a permanent fixture in the school he loves. Ashley best described the atmosphere of the school with McCollum around.

“I think the personality of the school would be a little different if Tate weren’t here.”

Falcons pick up division win against Byers

Ingomar picked up another important division win Tuesday night, defeating H.W. Byers, 91-69.
Up 42-27 at the half, the Lions fought back in the third, going on a 10-6 run before the Falcons called a timeout.
Jeremy Williams made it an eight point game, 48-40 with a triple, but a 9-0 Ingomar run kept the Falcons in the lead, as they led by 12 heading into the fourth quarter.
Zack Carnell led Ingomar with 23 points, while Matt Purvis and Tanner McCollum each scored 14 points. Steven Foster recorded 13 points and Kensey Stout scored 11 points for the Falcons, who are now 21-3 on the season.
Williams led all scorers with 35 points.
Ingomar will play at North Pontotoc on Thursday and at West Union Friday night.