Georgia Northwestern Wins 90-61 Over The Crown College

  • Wednesday, January 18, 2017
  • Scott Herpst

When he came to Georgia Northwestern, Patrick Simmons had a reputation as a 3-point shooter.

Tuesday night, he showed just why.

The sophomore guard and former LaFayette Rambler made his first eight attempts from behind the arc and finished one 3-pointer shy of the school record as his season and career-high 24 points helped lead the Bobcats to a 90-61 home win over The Crown College.

The win gave the Bobcats a regular season sweep of their United States Collegiate Athletic Association (USCAA) brethren, extended their winning streak to three games and pushed them back over the .500 mark (7-6) for the season.

Simmons, whose season and career-high for 3-pointers until Tuesday night was four - a feat he accomplished twice this season, including this past Friday's win over Oxford-Emory College in the opening round of the Oxford Classic in Covington - was 3-of-3 in the first half against Crown and finished the game a blistering 8-of-9.

"I thought the record was 11, so once I started making a lot of them, I was going for it," explained Simmons, referencing Ben Patton's record 9-of-11 performances against Johnson (Tenn.) University on Jan. 20, 2012. "My teammates kept feeding me the ball, so I have to thank them for that and (thank) them letting me make that many shots.

"I've started finding my rhythm. At the first of the year, I was forcing a lot of shots. but now, I'm settled it and letting the game come to me. It's helped my shot out a lot."

"He was great (last weekend) at Oxford too," head coach David Stephenson said. "Pat is a shy, unassuming guy, but we know what he's capable of. When he misses a shot now, it's a rarity and I hope it continues for him. I'm just happy he's going out this way."

The Bobcats, who never trailed in the game, led by as many as 11 in the first half, which turned into a 3-point shootout in front of the Rossville Athletic Center crowd. Crown went 8-of-13 in the opening 20 minutes (61.5 percent), but the home team went a scorching 8-of-10 (80 percent) as Darrius Fugh and Alec Rattanaxay also hit two apiece.

The score was tied on three occasions, but the Bobcats were able to take a high-scoring 49-44 lead into the break.

Crown would slice the lead down to 52-50 in the opening minutes of the first half, but Simmons and Bobcats were about to ruin the night for the Royal Crusaders and their trip home to Powell, Tenn.

In a five-minute span, Georgia Northwestern blew the game open with a decisive 18-2 run. The Bobcat bench got to their feet and waved towels as Simmons swished four more threes and the hype reached a fever pitch on a monster alley-oop dunk as Darius Floyd fed Darrius Fugh for the breakaway jam.

Simmons would add his eighth straight trey minutes later and a Caleb Golson steal and breakaway lay-up would push the lead to 20 with just over eight minutes remaining. Simmons would finally misfire on his ninth 3-point attempt before coming out of the game with about five minutes to play, getting a huge hand from his teammates before taking his seat.

Crown shot just 22.2 percent (6-of-27) from the floor in the second half and scored just 17 points.

"We talked to the guys at halftime," Stephenson said. "I don't know how many times in the first half we were playing this great defense for 27 or 28 seconds and then they'd kill us with a dagger with two or three seconds left on the (shot) clock. We knew we had to stop it and we were hoping they wouldn't keep shooting as well in the second half as they did in the first (half) and that's what happened.

"We also talked about making better use of our feet on defense, instead of trying to make steals with our hands and, obviously, we got hot with Patrick. Everything just clicked tonight and we just hope it continues on Thursday."

Fugh added to his new school career scoring record with 20 points to go with nine rebounds, four assists and three steals. Rattanaxay had 18 points. Micah Wheeler had a solid evening with eight points and six boards in the post, while Floyd finished with seven points as the Bobcats shot over 50 percent for the third straight game (55.7 percent) and ended the night with 13 3-pointers on 59.1 percent shooting from long range.

Georgia Northwestern will travel to Lookout Mountain on Thursday night for the first of two meetings this season with the Covenant College junior varsity squad. Tip-off is set for 7:30 p.m. The game will be preceded by the Lady Bobcats-JV Lady Scots game at 5:30.

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