New Manchester Battles Back For Region Win Over Douglas County
After picking a win over East Paulding on Friday, the New Manchester Jaguars girls basketball team was back in action on Saturday as they hosted county and region rival, the Douglas County Tigers. While the Jaguars looked to start another win streak, after having their four game win streak to start the season snapped on Tuesday, the Tigers, who began the season 3-0, looked for back to back wins for the first time since having their three game win streak to start the season come to an end.
Feeding off the momentum from their win on Friday, the Jaguars jumped out quickly to a 4-0 lead, but would cool off offensively as Douglas County would close out the opening period on an 11-3 run to lead 11-7 at the end of the quarter. While the Jaguars’ defense slowed the Tigers down some, their own offensive struggles continued and they trailed 19-13 at the half. In the third quarter, the Jaguars would keep pace with the Tigers as the period would end with Douglas County still leading by four points, but it would be the start of the fourth quarter in which New Manchester would gain some momentum.
Opening up the period on 7-2 run that included back to back baskets by Andrea Guilford, the Jaguars would regain the lead for the first time since leading 4-0 in the first quarter. Later a basket from Amaya Broadus would give the Jaguars a three point lead as they went up 39-36, but the Tigers battled to keep new Manchester within striking distance down to the final buzzer. With :09 to go in the game, the Tigers would get the ball in play and finally get off a three point shot, however that shot would not fall for the Tigers and the Jaguars would pick up the 40-38 win, improving to 6-1 overall and 2-1 in region play.
“With our group, number one, we’re young and it shows way too much from time to time,” New Manchester head coach Vincent Parks said after the Jaguars win, as he credited his team’s defensive efforts for helping secure the win. “We pretty much won this game on the defensive end because we’re still struggling in our half-court offense,” Parks added, but assured that he believes his team will put in the necessary work to reach the level of play they want to be at. “Patience on offense and rebounding, play good defense. We play pretty good defense, I’m happy with that end,” Parks said. New Manchester will be back in action on Tuesday when they take on another region rival in Alexander.
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