SENIOR NIGHT!!!

SCA BOYS 67, CITIZENS CHRISTIAN 51:
The Eagles closed out late with the win as Brannan Anthony led the way with 20 points, followed by Wesley Pittman (16), Gary Holloway (13) and John Schramm (10).Sherwood now is 17-6 and will play Tuesday’s Valwood-Windsor winner in the GISA Region 3-AA tourney at 8:30 p.m. Thursday at home. SCA coac Matt Ruta was pleased with Saturday’s win.“It was good,” Ruta said. “We lost a tough one Friday against Fullington. The kids did a good job bouncing back and showed a lot of heart and character. It was senior night so it was good to get them out on a high note and I was just pleased with everybody. We even led by 16 at one point.”

our coach is hotter than yours

Sherwood boys secure No. 1 region seed with win vs. SGA

ALBANY — There’s nothing like a little tune-up before the start of what Sherwood hopes is a deep run at state.
Alex Harrell and Gary Holloway scored 15 points each in the first half as the Eagles roared to a 45-25 lead at the intermission and finished the regular season unbeaten in region play to lock up the No. 1 seed with a 77-49 romp past Southwest Georgia Academy on Tuesday.
Harrell finished with 23 points and Holloway added 20 as the Eagles closed the regular season at 16-5 and 8-0 in GISA Region 3-AA play.
“That first half shows you how we are capable of playing if we put together a complete game,” SCA coach Matt Ruta said. “If we can play at that level of effort and intensity we can hang with anybody.”
With the region tournament set to begin next week at Sherwood, Ruta couldn’t have gotten a better effort from his team.
The Eagles kept that 20-point cushion for most of the second half before SGA, which fell to 9-13 and 3-4, narrowed the gap to 14 points, 57-43 with six minutes remaining. But Wesley Pittman, who finished with 17 points, canned three straight 3-pointers during a 16-2 run to spark SCA to 73-45 advantage with 3:10 remaining.
Ruta then pulled his entire five off the floor.
“I feel every game is an opportunity to get better and we got better (Tuesday night),” the coach said. “We built some confidence and we built some depth, which is exactly what we need headed into the region tournament.”
Danny Doster led SGA with 14 points and Parker Adams chipped in with 11.
The Region 3-AA tournament will be played at SCA beginning next Tuesday with a play-in game between Windsor and a team yet to be determined. Sherwood will play the winner of that game Thursday at 8:30 p.m. The region championship games will be played Friday at Darton College.

SHERWOOD BOYS 74, WINDSOR 26:

Sherwood jumped on Windsor early, scoring 61 points in the first half. Wesley Pittman and Brannan Anthony scored 17 points apiece for Sherwood. “We came out with a lot of defensive intensity,” Sherwood coach Matt Ruta said. “It’s been awhile since we played this well.” Sherwood’s next game is Friday against Valwood.

5-0 IN THE REGION!!!! Whoop Whoop

The Eagles have won 12 of their last 14 games after starting the year 1-2 and now sit on the verge of their first Region 3-AA championship in six years.

At 5-0 in Region 3-AA, it would take an awfully lot of bad things to happen for Sherwood not to win its first region championship since 2004.This after the Eagles survived Tiftarea, 63-58, on Friday night to seize control of 3-AA — with just three region games left to play before hosting the tournament in mid-February.“Big win,” said SCA coach Matt Ruta, whose team has won 12 of its last 14 games after starting the year 1-2. “We beat them by one earlier this year. It’s just a big, big win for this program.”The three remaining opponents for SCA — which was led Friday by Wesley Pittman and Gary Holloway’s 12 points each, followed by Brannan Anthony with 11 — the Eagles have already beaten.But Ruta’s not ready to crown his kids just yet.“Well, one of those (games) is against SGA (which we went to double overtime with) and another is with Valwood, who just got a transfer from Valdosta High who scored 25 the other night in a win against Tiftarea,” he said. “So nothing’s certain, but we like where we’re at for sure.”The SCA girls, meanwhile, were routed by Tiftarea (17-1, 4-0), 73-29, behind 15 points from star Courtney Albritton. Kaylee Dixon and Emilee Cook each scored six for SCA (7-9, 3-2).

Sherwood, SGA boys go into OT as Eagles pull out win to move into first place in region

DAMASCUS — You wouldn’t expect anything less than a thriller from the top two boys teams in GISA Region 2-AA.And that’s exactly what Sherwood and SGA delivered Tuesday night — needing overtime — in a showdown for first place in conference as the Eagles held on for a 55-47 win.“The fans certainly got their money’s worth (Tuesday night),” said SGA coach David Byrne, whose team fell to 6-9 overall and 2-2 in region after starting 2-0, while Sherwood moved to 4-0 in region and 12-4 overall.“We are happy to be No. 1 but we gotta get a lot better.” Sherwood head coach Matt Ruta said. “We survived (this time).”Wesley Pittman scored a team-high 12 points for Sherwood, while Pete McSwain added 11 in the win. SGA’s Parker Adams led all players with 14 points.

Catch up ... games last Friday and Saturday

Sherwood boys close strong, down Southland; Lady Raiders roll SCA girls Led by Wesley Pittman and Brannan Anthony, the Eagles earn a big road win Friday against Southland. Posted: 9:58 PM Jan 15, 2010 Reporter: Scott Chancey Email Address: scott.chancey@albanyherald.com -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sherwood boys beat Southland; Lady Raiders roll Sherwood's Brannan Anthony led the Eagles with 17 points on Friday night in a 55-39 drubbing of Southland in Americus. AMERICUS — One common denominator in the Sherwood Christian boys’ nine previous wins before Friday’s contest at Southland Academy was building double-digit leads. Another was nearly blowing them. That was not the case, however, against the GISA Class AAA Raiders as coach Matt Ruta’s Class AA Eagles went on a 17-3, second-half run for a 55-39 victory That’s the best we’ve closed a game by far,” Ruta said. “We had really focused on closing games out during the past couple of weeks.” Brannan Anthony led Sherwood (10-4) with 17 points, followed by Wesley Pittman and Gary Holloway with 10 each. Calling in from the road after previous close wins, Ruta often expressed frustration at his team’s lack of intensity near game’s end. Pittman also had experienced that frustration but did not show any after Friday’s win. Making two 3-pointers during Friday’s game, Pittman said the timing could not be better for Sherwood to build a lead and hold it since the region playoffs are a month away. “In the playoffs, all the teams are good so they are going to make a run at you,” Pittman said. “Hopefully, we can repeat this in the future.” Ruta, however, did become frustrated at times during the first half after Sherwood built a double-digit lead and had trouble adjusting to Southland’s slower pace. “We play best at a fast pace, and Southland did a really good job in slowing things down,” Ruta said. Sherwood began its game-changing run with defense when Anthony blocked a Rolie Hancock shot. Eagles teammate John Schramm then made a steal that resulted in a Pete McSwain layup and 31-24 lead. A strong move for a layup by Holloway kept the momentum from the third quarter as the Eagles’ defense created key turnovers, leading to a 46-27 lead in the fourth quarter. The Eagles, from there, never looked back. “Our defense was the key,” Anthony said. “It just came up big for us. We played hard on defense, especially in the second half, and had great energy all the way around.” Raiders coach Ernest Scott, on the other hand, is just trying to build on his team’s youth and inexperience. It struggled when Sherwood sped up the pace at game’s end. “They got a lot of transitional baskets and that came from unforced turnovers,” Scott said. “We didn’t get back enough in transition.” Southland (6-11) was led by Andres Chaparro with 15 points, followed by Jose Hernandez with 10.

SATURDAY SHERWOOD BOYS 50, WESTWOOD 25:
The Eagles had no trouble Saturday, beating Westwood for the second time this season. Though. SCA coach Matt Ruta wasn’t exactly pleased with the effort one night after what he called his team’s most complete game of the season in a win against Southland on the road. “I think we were tired,” said Ruta, whose record is now 11-4 overall. “We got up big by halftime and led by about 25 or 30 going into the fourth quarter. I guess we played OK.” John Schramm led SCA with 15 points, followed by Wesley Pittman with 10. Jake Kotter and Mason Jones each led Westwood with 6. If SCA can beat SGA on Tuesday in its region showdown, the Eagles will be alone in first place. SGA comes into the game 2-0 in region, while Sherwood is 3-0.