Last season the Lakeview Academy girls basketball team won just three games. This season the Lady Lions (4-4) have already surpassed that total after a 58-44 win over Lumpkin County last Friday at home. The win brought their record to 4-2 at the time.
Junior Taylor Handte has been a big part of the early run of success. The guard has been a consistent double-digit scorer, including a 20-point effort in the Lumpkin County win. Wednesday night Handte again led the team with 16 points in a 60-52 loss to George Walton Academy.
Handte’s early success hasn’t been much of a surprise. Last season, she averaged 10 points per game.
“She’s a tremendous young lady and the best shooter that we have,” Lakeview coach John Carrick said. “She plays extremely hard.”
With point guard Kelsey Gilbert entering the mix as well and only one senior graduated from last year’s team, the Lady Lions are looking up.
Lakeview has been especially good against Region 8-AAA opponents, having defeated West Hall 45-43 and Johnson 38-35 in addition to the Lumpkin County win.
The Lady Lions finished just 3-21 a year ago. Like this season, last year also started with a close win over West Hall, 33-32. Lakeview followed that with a 10-game losing streak.
This year’s Lady Lions will have a chance to continue their strong start on Friday against a solid Towns County team in Hiawassee.
KNIGHTS SENIOR HITS MILESTONE: Matt Hollis, a senior guard for Johnson and one of last season’s top scorers in the county, is now one of nine Knights to surpass 1,000 points in program history.
After scoring 33 points on Nov. 30 in a 72-65 win at Lakeview, Hollis was just five short. Back at home a week later, Hollis hit the milestone early on en route to 32 points and a 79-69 win over Jefferson.
LADY VIKINGS SENIORS LEAD THE WAY: The East Hall girls are 2-0 this season after cruising by Gainesville 45-23 on Tuesday.
The seniors are carrying the load.
Jasmine Jenkins led the team with 12 points and fellow seniors Morgan Jackson, Holly Lester and Audrianna Lindsey each added nine. In all, just six points were scored by Lady Vikings underclassmen.
It’s a bit of a surprise considering the program graduated four seniors off of last year’s team. Returning, however, were Jenkins and Morgan who led the 2010-2011 squad with 15 and 12 points per game, respectively.
The seniors will look to lead the way once again when the team travels to North Hall (3-1) for a battle of top-10 teams. East Hall is No. 8 in Class AA and North Hall is No. 10 in Class AAA.
FOOTBALL PLAYERS BACK ON COURT: The Gainesville basketball team can finally fill out a full lineup with the football season in the books. Deshaun Watson, Caleb Hayman and Jeremiah Ledbetter, among the six players trading in their cleats for high tops can now return to the hardcourt.
“It has helped just having a complete team and our full roster. Now we can begin to establish and define roles, and begin to fully install our system,” Gainesville coach Todd Cottrell said. “We are still about a month behind most everyone else, so we definitely have a lot of work to do.”
Watson, who led the Red Elephants football team to a spot in the Class AAA semifinals while piling up over 1,000 yards rushing and 3,000 yards passing, also looks to be a key piece for the basketball team this year as one of last season’s top returners. The sophomore scored five points in the 90-84 loss to East Hall on Tuesday night.
BUFORD GIRLS STAR IN DOCUMENTARY: The three-time defending Class AA state champion Lady Wolves starred on the big screen last Saturday at the Buford Fine Arts Center in the release of a documentary, “The Season — Buford High School,” covering last season’s championship run.
Cameras covered the team throughout the playoff run and various other times throughout the season.
The executive producer of the website is Kelly Kline, who runs a website called insideswomensbasketball.com, and the six-part series is available online at Kline’s website.
CHESTATEE WRESTLERS DOMINANT: The Chestatee wrestling team hasn’t just been winning this season, the War Eagles (10-2) have been nothing short of dominating.
The team is 4-0 in its past four matches, including a quad-match sweep Saturday at Duluth and a 69-12 winover Lanier on Tuesday at home.
Taylor Albarado (126 pounds) and Dylan Brock (195) both went 4-0 over the last four matches. Chestatee recorded nine pins against Lanier and will compete again on Saturday at Creekview.