By Nick Nunn
Staff Writer

Both Morgan County Middle School basketball teams beat their opponents in the first round of playoffs for the Piedmont Athletic Conference (PAC) championship and will advance to the quarterfinal playoff games this week.
The boys’ 30-25 overtime victory against Carson Middle School (Greene County) and the girls’ 31-6 blowout over Carver Middle School were only two of the eight games that took place at Youth Middle School for Super Saturday.
The Morgan County boys took an early but slight lead over Carson Middle and were able to hold onto it for the first three quarters of their game.
At the beginning of the fourth quarter, Morgan County was leading 20-14, but Carson was able to stage a late comeback, scoring 11 points before the end of the last regulation quarter to tie the game 25-25.
The layup at the buzzer that tied the game for Carson caused the room to explode in energy, which continued throughout the three-minute overtime period.
Although all five points made by the Dogs in overtime to give Morgan County the win came as free throw shots, the boys’ team had an otherwise abysmal game at the line, going five for 25 in free throws before overtime.
During the girls’ game, Autumn Woodard, Elizabeth Couch, and Tatyana Davis each scored seven points for Morgan County, but they didn’t need their lucky 7-7-7 combination against Carver Middle School, who were no match for the Lady Dogs.
Carver scored four points in the first half of the game against the Morgan County girls, but they couldn’t match that production in the second, scoring only two more points for a total of six in the game.
The quarterfinal playoff games for the PAC championship took place Tuesday and Wednesday at Youth Middle School. The Morgan County girls played against Youth Middle Tuesday at 4:30 p.m. The boys’ opponent for their quarterfinal game was also Youth Middle, whom they played Wednesday at 5:45.
If Morgan County won these games, they will advance to the championship games, which will take place this Friday at 4:30 and 6 p.m. at Youth Middle School.
The results of the rest of Morgan County’s performances in the PAC playoffs will be included in next week’s edition.

Printed in the February 7, 2013 edition