Athens played some of its best basketball so far this season over the weekend.
While the Bulldogs beat Wellston on Friday, 72-30, they dropped their Saturday game to Fairland, 81-77 in overtime.
Even in loss, coach Mickey Cozart said it was the best his team had played all season.
“It’s just unfortunate that we didn’t come out on the top end of that,” he said.
Athens, at one point in the game, had a 12-point lead, but let it slip away throughout the second half, eventually giving up the lead with 5:35 left in the fourth quarter. After that, the two teams traded leads, all the way until Fairland tied the game at the final buzzer, and then never trailed in overtime.
Fairland came into the game ranked 39th in the state — according to MaxPreps — and the 96th ranked Bulldogs played them very well.
“We weren’t scared of a high ranked team,” Cozart said. “We left it all out there.”
On Friday, senior Griffin Lutz scored his 1,000 career point.
Even in a blowout, Lutz stayed on the court when the Bulldogs were trying to rest their starters, so he could reach this milestone.
“I’m excited to see where he’s going to college,” Cozart said. “I’m definitely going to make some trips to watch him play.”
After coming out flat Tuesday night against Parkersburg (West Virginia) and losing big, the Bulldogs shooting confidence should be much improved, especially Lutz, who scored 62 points over the two games.
These two games should give the Bulldogs an overall team confidence for the rest of their conference schedule, and the confidence to play against teams that are ranked higher than them in playoff runs at the end of the season.
Correction: A previous version of the photo caption misspelled Robert Dickelman's name. The photo caption has been updated to show the most accurate information.
