MORGAN COUNTY
Morgan County boys’ basketball has struggled under new head coach Cody Anderson this season.
The Bulldogs recently ended the regular season with a 72-65 victory over Harlem; however, they’ve lost three of four heading into next week’s region tournament as the No. 5 seed.
Anderson has faith his team can turn things around next week in hopes of getting to the semifinals of the region tournament, which can clinch it a berth in the Class AAA state playoffs.
“‘Perspective’ has been the word we’ve been talking a lot about lately,” he said. “Whether or not we had all this adversity, it was going to come down to winning a (region tournament) game to be able to go to the state tournament. That happens to still be the case.”
According to Anderson, Monday’s game against Hephzibah will decide the team’s fate.
“All of the adversity we have gone through, there can be an extreme benefit for us to overcome it, but also to go through it,” Anderson said. “That’s only if we take that perspective. We’ve talked about how the last two games are just tune-ups for the one that matters.”
Morgan County has faced a lot of misfortune this year. It all started on Dec. 10, when leading scorer Qua Brown was lost to a season-ending injury. The Newton County transfer tore his Achilles tendon during a celebration following the Bulldogs’ win over Putnam County.
Brown was averaging 12.3 points and 7.5 rebounds per game before his injury. He also helped Morgan County upset a ranked Social Circle squad at home the week before. Brown, a North Carolina AT&T commit, scored 18 points and grabbed 11 boards in the win.
The Bulldogs have struggled since losing Brown and went 6-12 without him to end the season.
Morgan County is now without senior TJ Thomson, too, who took over as the team’s leading scorer when Brown got hurt. He was recently dismissed from the team for a violation of team rules.
The Bulldogs will have to navigate the region tournament without Thompson, so they will look to other players such as seniors Reggie Ross and Harrison Peaster to lead them.
Morgan County has been in most region games without Brown. The Bulldogs are 3-3 in league contests decided by five points or less, so they’re close, but need to get over the hump.
“Outside of Cross Creek, we’re the best first-half team in terms of point differential in our league. Well, the bad part is, we’re the third-worst second-half team, and we are the worst third-quarter team,” Anderson said. “Our issue is not that we can’t do it, it’s that we can’t perform well consistently enough for four quarters. How can we get a little better, and go and play for a full 32 minutes? At the end of the day, nothing else matters.”
A prime example of Anderson’s squad struggling in the third quarter came against Cross Creek on Friday.
The Bulldogs played well in the first quarter, trailing by one point at the end of it, and headed into the intermission down 24-21 to the No. 7 Razorbacks. They fell apart in the third, though, and got outscored 23-7, which gave their opponent a 19-point lead going into the fourth.
Cross Creek’s third-quarter effort led it to victory as the final period of regulation was tight. The Razorbacks outscored Morgan County by one point down the stretch but won the game, 60-40. It all came back to the Bulldogs’ slow start in the third quarter, which led to their demise.
“We have enough in this room (to compete). Basically, it’s just going to be our ability to block out everything else, try to go out and play hard for 32 minutes, We’re going to play a team that is beatable,” Anderson said. “It’s not like we’re going to play Cross Creek to have to get into the state tournament. No. We’ve just got to go out and play a full four quarters.”
The Bulldogs look to fix their third-quarter woes in Monday’s important matchup with Hephzibah.