Morgan County basketball enters the new year looking to turn a corner after going 2-1 at the Oscar Wimbley Classic, held at Lamar County High School last week.
The ‘Dogs enter this week at 8-6.
Locust Grove defeated Morgan County 57-51 on Dec. 28 behind a strong effort from a few key players. However, the Dogs responded with two wins over Ola and Jackson to end the Wimbley Classic.
“We had a good weekend in Lamar County. We learned some valuable lessons on Thursday (against Locust Grove). We only played six kids,” Morgan County head coach Cody Anderson said. “I’ve told the kids from the beginning that I refuse to play anybody who’s not playing to our standard or is not doing what we expect of them. We learned a valuable lesson on Thursday by putting ourselves in a situation where we lost a game that we should’ve won.
We then came out on Friday and Saturday and played good basketball. … That’s what I wanted to see after the loss.”
Morgan County thumped Ola 85-42 the next day behind a strong team effort from beyond the arc. The Dogs hit a program record 18 3-pointers, with 10 coming from senior guard Ryan Moore.
Moore tied a program record with his 10 triples, which resulted in him leading the Dogs with 30 points. Junior Jaylen Elder added 19 points, followed by sophomore Jacoby Simmons adding 11 points, with senior Jamari Evans contributing 10 points in Morgan County’s 43-point win over Ola.
“Offensively, I thought we could’ve played better, but you can’t complain about hitting 18 3-pointers as a team,” Anderson added. “Defensively, we made (Ola) turn it over a lot. When you’re playing well by clicking offensively and making them turn it over by playing great defensively, that’s the whole reason we play like we do. That was a game we needed to win as well.”
Finally, Anderson’s squad capped off the Wimberly Classic with a 70-42 win against Jackson. Elder and sophomore Zeki Locus, an All-Tournament team selection, led in scoring with 14 each.
Moore (13 points), Evans (11 points), and Simmons (10 points) each contributed to the winning effort.
“It was another game where we played well, but we started slow,” Anderson explained. “I told our team that you can’t count on making 18 3-pointers every game. Good teams find other ways to win. For us to come and win on Saturday in a completely different style of game, was very encouraging for me. And it gave our guys a lot of confidence. We had so many of our guys play well.”
Anderson hopes the lessons his team learned this past week can continue as it begins region play on Friday.
The Dogs start league competition by hosting Class AAA’s No. 10 -ranked Academy of Richmond County – which finished last in the Region 4-AAA standings last season – but is now 11-2.
“I feel good about our team because the non-conference (part of our schedule) was designed to be difficult,” Anderson said. “We’ve got the second strength in our league, only second to Cross Creek, which has the hardest in all of AAA. I feel like we’re battle-tested headed into region play.”