FLOWERY BRANCH—Flowery Branch outscored Chestatee 50-16 in the second half en route to a 63-26 Region 7-4A win Friday night.
The Lady Falcons (4-1, 2-0) opened the game on a 9-2 run, and never looked back. Chestatee closed the gap 13-10, but The Branch ended the half on an 18-3 run to take a 31-13 lead into the break.
“I thought we were a little timid early, offensively,” Flowery Branch coach Courtney Newton said. “They just hit some shots early, and we had to stay the course. Offensively, we just had to get the ball moving some more, and that’s what made us get on a run like that.”
After Chestatee cut the deficit to three in the second quarter, Flowery Branch outscored the Lady War Eagles 50-16 over the last two and one-half quarters.
Caroline Wysocki and Ashley Woodroffe paced the Lady Falcons all night long. Wysocki led all scorers with 16, and sparked the Flowery Branch offense early, scoring nine of her 16 in the first half. Woodroffe took over in the second half, scoring eight of her 13 points after the break.
Emma Easterwood was the lone Chestatee scorer in double figures, pouring in 12 of her team’s 26 points.
Flowery Branch is off to a 2-0 start in region play.
“We were excited to enter this region,” Coach Newton said. “We’re happy to be 2-0, but we know it’s going to be a long and competitive region season.”
The Lady Falcons will play again tomorrow as they travel to Lanier for a non-region game at 4 p.m.
Chestatee will look to get back on track when they face off with Marist on Dec. 11 in a Region 7-4A game.
CHESTATEE BOYS 72
FLOWERY BRANCH 51
Chestatee earned its first Region 7-4A win, knocking off Flowery Branch Friday night at home.
Chestatee (7-2, 1-1) was on fire from deep, hitting 16 3-pointers as a team.
Cameron Gwynn led the way for the War Eagles, hitting 10 3-pointers en route to a 34-point performance. Will Cantrell did the dirty work in the paint for Chestatee, scoring 16 points, but showed his 3-point shooting as well, hitting two from deep.
“It’s really cool to see these seniors have that type of success,” Chestatee coach Kevin Strickland said. “It’s been a long time since we’ve had that type of success at Chestatee.”
Chestatee led by as many as 24, but the Falcons put up a fight, right down to the wire. Flowery Branch went on a 6-0 run to cut the War Eagles lead to one point with 6:15 left in the second quarter but were never able to control the lead in the game.
“This is huge. We’ve only had two region wins since I’ve been here,” Strickland said. “To have a region win in game two is enormous. It puts us in a good spot. They have a lot of guys and they will be a completely different team a few weeks down the road.”
Johnathan Gunter and Mario Brown scored 14 points apiece for the Falcons, but Flowery Branch was not able to match the 3-point shooting attack of the War Eagles.
Chestatee looks to keep this momentum going, and will next play on Tuesday against Marist in a key Region 7-4A matchup.
Flowery Branch (1-5, 1-1) looks to bounce back when they play at Lanier in a non-region game Saturday at 5:30 p.m.
