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Published Wednesday, February 03, 2010 in Sports

Cougars go 'fourth' to hold off Morrow

By Tommy Camp

The Newnan Times-Herald

MORROW -- Pouring in a season-best matching 24 points in the fourth quarter, the Newnan Cougars held off the Morrow Mustangs here Tuesday night, 73-65, to pick up a hard-earned Region 4-AAAAA victory.

The Newnan girls lost a heartbreaker to the Lady Mustangs, 35-34, despite leading by four points with 20 seconds to play.

It was the second gut-wrenching loss in a row for the Lady Cougars who were beaten by Lovejoy in overtime on Saturday after coming from seven points behind to take a late fourth quarter lead.

On Tuesday, Ashley Montgomery sank two free throws with 20 seconds to play to give Newnan a 34-30 lead.

But after a time out, Morrow's Albrey Tyson knocked down a three-pointer to slice the lead to one with 12 seconds to play.

Following another time out, Newnan's Montgomery was called for traveling with 7.8 seconds to go on a play in which the Lady Mustangs could just as easily have been whistled for tripping, but weren't.

Morrow's Brittany Askew banked in a shot from under the basket with five seconds left to put her team ahead.

Newnan never got off a last shot.

It was another spirit-rending loss for the Lady Cougars who dropped their fifth in a row and sixth in the last seven outings to fall to 6-14 overall on the year and 4-12 in region play.

The Newnan girls led 10-8 at the end of the first quarter and 18-13 at halftime before Morrow charged back late in the third quarter to carry a 27-24 lead into the final eight minutes.

Montgomery finished with 10 points including two threes to pace the Newnan girls while Katamara Maxwell had 12 for Morrow.

Both teams lost key players early to injury. Morrow's Chatil Bradford, who scored 27 points in Morrow's win in Newnan earlier in the year, went down with a knee injury early in the first quarter.

And Newnan's Shakeria Langford set out the rest of the game after injuring an ankle late in the second period.

In the boys' game, the Cougars appeared on the verge a couple of times of making things a lot more comfortable than they turned out to be only to have Morrow storm back.

Newnan (13-7, 11-5) scored the first seven points of the second half to turn what had been a seven-point lead into a 14-point margin, 37-23, with 6:33 to go, but the Mustangs narrowed it to nine twice before the Cougars were up 49-38 going to the fourth quarter.

That's when the real fun began, especially in the first four minutes of the period, when players on the floor and bench and fans in the stands swapped heated exchanges before cooler heads prevailed.

Morrow sliced the Newnan lead to 60-56 with 4:01 to play before the Cougars went on another seven-point run to lead 67-56 with just over two minutes to go.

Morrow got to within six at the 1:04 mark, 68-62, but Alec Ogletree sank three of four free throws in final minute and Zander Ogletree hit two with 16 seconds left for the final eight-point bulge.

Six different Newnan players scored in the fourth quarter when the Cougars matched the 24 points they hit against Mundy's Mill at home just last week.

Jarrett Coleman paced the Cougars with a personal best 26 points including five three-pointers and seven of nine from the line while Alec Ogletree scored 17.

Morrow had five players in double figures with Maqeece Biggs and Charles West sharing honors with 14 each and six of their team's eight three-pointers.

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