Ware County’s 2024-25 basketball season is off to a flying start with both the Lady Gators and Gators notching victories.
The Lady Gators (1-0) escaped in a nip-and-tuck affair against Tift County posting a 46-42 victory scoring the last four points in the final 42 seconds.
The Gators (1-0) had no trouble against Charlton County in the nightcap scoring the first 13 points of the game en route to 6835 decision in the nightcap.
Ware County has two home games this week. Atkinson County visited Tuesday (November 19). Valdosta visit Thursday, November 21, one day earlier than previously scheduled.
The Lady Gators will travel Saturday, November 23 to Hazlehurst to face Dodge County at 1 p.m., in the annual Jeff Davis Tipoff tournament. They will face the host Lady Yellow Jackets Monday, November 25 at 7 p.m.
The Gators travel to the two-day Florida Get Down Showcase in Orlando, Fla., Friday, November 29 and Saturday, November 30. Ware County faces Rickards of Tallahassee, Fla., Friday night at 7 p.m., and Boyd Anderson of Lauderdale Lakes, Fla., Saturday at 12:30 p.m.
Lady Gators............46 Tift County .............42 Rhi Mateyka’s 10-foot bank shot with 42 seconds to play broke a 42-all tie and Kyla McKelvin sank two free throws inside the final 10 seconds to seal the win for the Lady Gators.
Tift County battled back from a 37-31 deficit entering the final period to take a 40-39 lead with under two minutes remaining. Mateyka (13 points, two treys) banked in a threepointer from the left wing giving the Lady Gators a 42-40 advantage with 1:27 left.
After the Lady Blue Devils evened the score at 42-apiece, Mateyka banked in the go-ahead basket from the right side low post block for a twopoint advantage. McKelvin the drained both free throws for her only points of the night.
Ware County raced out to a 17-9 advantage in the opening eight minutes. Tift County sliced into the deficit limiting the Lady Gators to just one basket during a 9-5 second quarter scoring advantage to pull to within 22-18 at intermission.
The Lady Blue Devils continued to chip away in the third period pulling even at 30 near the threeminute mark. A 7-1 run by Ware County to the buzzer extended the margin to 3731.
Shardell Vickers led the Lady Gators with a gamehigh 14 points. Lydia Munford (two treys) gave Ware County a trio of doublefigure scorers finishing with 10 points. Bree Hill netted four points and grabbed a team-high nine rebounds.
Tift County was led by Amiya Jordan’s 11 points. Jaziyah Johnson added 10 points.
Gators....................68 Charlton County.....35 Ware County found the long-range bomb to its liking draining 12 to go along with 13 two-point baskets in knocking off the Indians.
Jarvis Wright, a Morehead State commit, hit eight treys in scoring 24 points in three quarters to lead the Gators. Wright found his stroke in the second period connecting from beyond the arc five times.
Dedrick Jackson was next with 12 points. Darius Ward (trey) and Tezhan Bolds (trey) followed with nine points each. Bolds scored all of his points in the first period.
Sirbari Williams (trey) contributed seven points. Shaun McClam (trey) finished with five points and Travis Story added two points.
Darius Ward gets inside for a basket against Charlton County’s Jack Braddock to score in the first quarter. Photo By RICK HEAD
Ware County bolted out to a 13-0 advantage in the opening minutes en route to a 28-4 first quarter lead. The Gators outscored Charlton County 20-14 in the second stanza to extend its margin to 48-18 at intermission.
The home team continued to pad its margin during the third period outscoring the Indians 14-3 for an insurmountable 62-21 advantage. Charlton County outpointed the Gators 14-6 during the “mercy rule” final period.
Jack Braddock led eight Indians in the scoring column with 10 points.
