Notebook: Sandy Creek Shootout
TYRONE, GA - Sandy Creek Shootout pinned five teams from Atlanta's south side against five teams from Columbus. As the final buzzer sounded on the day, Atlanta came away with the clean sweep and won all five match-ups.
LYONS LET IT ROAR
This is a transition year for McIntosh sophomore shooting guard Jordan Lyons. Last season as a freshman, the 6-foot guard was a starting point guard as a high school rookie and by all accounts he did an admirable job in the role.
Fast forward to this season and Lyons is picking up where he left off from last season. There is one difference, however, he's dialed in even more as a scorer.
Lyons scored 32 points to pace McIntosh to a 72-56 victory over Jordan on Saturday evening. Lyons is coming off a good summer with the Heat Check travel team. McIntosh head coach Jason Eisele said he sees a difference in his sophomore scorer.
"I think what the summer did was validate his confidence," Eisele said. "We knew he could run the show but we wanted to play him off the ball and let Will be more of our point guard this year. We had them trade roles and I like where we are at with that. Jordan just doesn't force things. He has good court intelligence. There's not a situation where we can throw at him that he doesn't know the answer. He's always making the right play."
Lyons made plenty of right plays on Saturday. His shot selection was on point and that allowed guys like Will Washington to enjoy success at the rim. Washington, a sophomore point guard, scored 14 points in the win.
Sophomore big man Dishaun Lowery pulled down 10 rebounds in the win.
TRI-CITIES MAKES QUICK WORK OF COLUMBUS
Emmanuel Rainey and Shawntrez Davis combined 46 of Tri-Cities' 82 points as the Bulldogs had little to no trouble putting Columbus away 82-56.
Rainey, an Unsigned senior point guard, pumped in 24 points and used his tailback frame to cut through the Columbus defense with ease. Davis, a 6-foot-8 junior, scored 21 points and grabbed six rebounds in the win. He finished everything around the cup.
It will be a big week for Tri-Cities, especially for Davis as he has a match-up against North Atlanta's Noah Dickerson on Wednesday.
POTENT PERIMETER OFFENSE MAKES IT EASY FOR SANDY CREEK
Sandy Creek used speed, pressure defense and a heck of a lot of three-pointers to put away Hardaway 66-29 in the night cap. Unsigned senior Brandon Lindsey scored 25 points, including four three-pointers en route to the end-of-the-day blowout.
Lindsey was the beneficiary of great passes from sophomore point guard Christian Turner, who finished the game with nine assists, four rebounds and four steals to match his nine points. Senior Jalen Lee also hit five three-pointers in the win.
JONESBORO JUMPS THROUGH CARVER
After a long week of practice, Jonesboro came out right from the tip and sent the message home that last week's loss to McEachern can't happen again. The Cardinals beat each other up in practice to set the tone for the season and it paid off on Saturday.
Jonesboro stomped Carver 67-40. Junior forward Tracey Hector, Jr. scored a team-high 22 points. Fabulous freshman MJ Walker scored 11 points in limited action. He turned his ankle in practice and picked his moments to make an impact.
Senior Kimiun Woods lead Carver with 20 points in the defeat.