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Published Friday, February 17, 2012 in Sports

Prep Basketball: Cougars continue Cinderella run today

By Doug Gorman

The Newnan Times-Herald

An underdog is guaranteed to reach the boys championship game of the Region 2-AAAAA basketball tournament.

The Newnan Cougars' hope the Cinderella story belongs to them. Especially since their first chapter is already in the books.

After struggling most of the season in the Region 2-AAAAA portion of the schedule, the Cougars (15-13 overall) picked a good time to play some of their best basketball on Wednesday at Westlake High in the first round of the region tournament.

After losing twice to Langston Hughes in the regular season -- including once in double overtime -- sixth-seeded Newnan knocked off the No. 3 Panthers 42-41 in what became the first of two consecutive upset wins among boys seedings.

But Wednesday's victory guaranteed Newnan a trip to the Class AAAAA tournament for the first time in two years.

"This is for the kids," Newnan coach Rod Ladd said afterwards.

The ride is certainly not over yet. With a win tonight, the Cougars can also guarantee a first-round state tournament game at home rather than taking a long bus ride to south Georgia.

Standing in Newnan's way tonight at 5:30 p.m. at Westlake is No. 7 seed Stephenson. The Jaguars added an upset of their own by stunning No. 2 seed Newton, 45-38 to eliminate a Rams team that reached last year's Class AAAAA Elite 8.

While struggling during the region schedule, two of the Cougars' four victories in 2-AAAAA play came against Stephenson.

Still, Ladd let his team know before the tournament that some of the struggles it had suffered through during the regular season needed to be put behind them.

"We had talked about just needing to win one game to get back to state. They went out and played hard and we made it," he said.

The Cougars have now won four straight during a streak that began with its 71-53 win at East Coweta and has encompassed the entire month of February.

Newnan also held off M.L. King 70-69 in overtime and defeated Stephenson 51-47 to close the regular season. The Cougars also beat Stephenson 61-54 on Jan. 17.

The team's most recent victory certainly was its most rewarding yet.

The Cougars took an eight-point lead on their last basket with a little more than four minutes left in the contest. Newnan then played just enough timely defense to preserve the one-point win.

Langston Hughes nearly spoiled Newnan's upset hopes with a shot at the buzzer to win the game, but it fell short.

The Cougars won despite getting just a handful of players into the offense.

Sophomore Donnell Dean finished with 18 points and Tray Matthews contributed 10.

"This is every team's goal," said Dean. "We just want to keep it going."

According to Matthews their was no panic even after the squad hit an offensive dry spell over the last four minutes of the game.

"We just stayed determined," Matthews said. "We weren't ready to lose. We didn't want to go home."

A victory Friday night moves the Cougars into Saturday night's Region 2-AAAAA championship game against the winner of tonight's late semifinal between No. 1 seed and tournament host Westlake and No. 4 seed M.L. King.

A loss to Stephenson would put Newnan in Saturday's 4 p.m. third place game for state playoff seeding.

Region 2-AAAAA's qualifiers will open the state tournament against schools from 1-AAAAA. Top-seed Tift County played No. 4 Coffee on Thursday in one semifinal while No. 2 Valdosta and No. 3 Lowndes met in the other.

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