On Friday, January 18, the Cartersville Purple Hurricanes defeated the Troup County Tigers 88-76 in a much needed region home victory. The Canes survived a three point shootout in which each team made 14 three-pointers.

Early in the first quarter, Troup found a hole in Cartersville’s defense and had multiple wide-open-corner threes. Fortunately, Coach Tobin and the Canes made the necessary adjustments to keep the corners off limits for the rest of the first quarter.

Sophomore Kolbe Benham and senior Perignon Dyer started the game on fire and scored seven and eight points respectively in the first quarter.

The Tigers took advantage of Cartersville’s lack of size and dominated the offensive rebounds. The second chance opportunities allowed Troup to keep their deficit at only two as they entered the second quarter down 22-20.

Both teams continued to shoot the ball well in the second quarter and the Canes took a 37-30 lead into half time. JaQuavo McFarland shined for Troup, as he hit three three-pointers in the third quarter. This would’ve been enough to put the Tigers ahead, but Kolbe Benham had three of his own three-point shots to put the Canes ahead 55-53 entering the fourth quarter.

Troup hit five threes in the fourth quarter, including a few big threes from McFarland, but Cartersville hit a few threes late to stretch their lead to nine. The Canes secured a victory after senior Isaac Gridley converted an and one at the end of the fourth quarter. The Canes overcame the barrage of Troup County threes to secure an 88-76 victory.

Kolbe Benham put up a whopping 26 points and Perignon Dyer exploded for 22 points to carry Cartersville to the victory. Amarai Orr and Isaac Gridley added 16 and 14 points of their own as the Canes scored a season-high 88 points.

Cartersville is now 3-3 in region play and is in position to secure the second seed if they continue to play well. Both Troup and Cartersville will look forward to a rematch as they face off on February 2 to close out the regular season.