After a tight first quarter between River Ridge and Blessed Trinity, the Knights made a change to their defensive approach and took off from there in Friday night’s 65-47 second-round Class AAAAAA playoff win.
The score was knotted at 11-11 through the first eight minutes, with River Ridge coming out in a press. The Titans were able to break it, though, and with their potent guard play, quickly move down the court and score.
River Ridge changed its approach in the second quarter and outscored Blessed Trinity 16-2 going into halftime.
River Ridge will face off against Marist in the Elite 8 after the War Eagles jumped on Tift County 61-37. Marist beat Blessed Trinity 49-34 earlier this season.
In other girls’ playoff action, Sequoyah pulled off the rare feat of sweeping a non-region foe in three games when they beat North Forsyth on Friday. Sequoyah jumped out to a 10-0 lead after bringing defensive pressure, forcing turnovers and scoring in those transition opportunities. The Chiefs took care of the ball on their end and knocked down shots. Sayler Davies hit a pair of 3-pointers in the first half, and Addison Ghorley connected on another. With the raucous Raiders’ crowd, Sequoyah had to nullify its impact. After falling to Woodstock in the Region 6AAAAAA championship, Sequoyah has now won three straight games, with the last two coming by double digits.
The Chiefs will meet Brunswick in the quarterfinals on Tuesday night. The Pirates defeated Woodward Academy in Round 2.
With a hobbled Dastin Hart and a substantial size disadvantage, Cherokee’s defense rose to the challenge in Saturday’s 73-58 home playoff win over Berkmar, sending the Warriors to the Class AAAAAA Elite 8.
Cherokee’s shooters caught fire early, with Tayden Owens connecting on two straight 3-pointers to start the night. Berkmar went to Mekhi Ragland early in the paint, but the Warriors defended him well throughout the night and denied easy entry passes.
Owens was the game’s leading scorer with 26 points, followed closely by his backcourt running mate Cameron Pope, who finished at 22 points. Lawrence Sanford pitched in 15 points off the bench.
Cherokee moves on to face Carrollton in Round 2, which defeated Parkview 58-56 on Saturday.
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In other boys’ basketball action, Etowah coach Jason Dasinger said the first half of Saturday night’s high school basketball playoff game was on him.
He let the players take over the second half, and that propelled to a 59-42 victory over Pope in the second round of the Class AAAAAA tournament. Aiden Weaver led a trio of Eagles players in double-digits with 16 points. Mason Etter and Brandon Rechsteiner added 15 points apiece.
Sixth-ranked Etowah (21-8) moves on to the quarterfinals and will play at No. 2 St. Pius X on Wednesday in Chamblee.
St. Pius X beat Lakeside-Evans 62-57 on Saturday.
The Magistrate Court of Cherokee County has received a Judicial Excellence Award for Clearance Rate Excellence.
The magistrate court received the award Jan. 25 for the 2021 calendar year, the court announced. This marks the fourth year the Cherokee County Magistrate Court has earned the award.
The award is presented annually by the Administrative Office of the Courts’ Standing Committee on Judicial Workload Assessment to the top 10% of counties in terms of clearance rate (16 counties out of 159). A clearance rate of 100% or greater demonstrates that the court is keeping up with its caseload.
Deputy Clerk Elaine Ellis added that “it is truly amazing to see what can be accomplished when a team works together to achieve a common goal.”
A former Woodstock High School teacher will serve three years in prison after he pleaded guilty to touching and groping six underage high school students, the Cherokee County District Attorney’s Office announced.
Ryan Parker McKendrick, 40, entered a negotiated guilty plea to nine counts of sexual assault of a student Feb. 9.
Senior Judge C.J. Gober Jr. sentenced McKendrick to 20 years, with the first three years to serve in prison and the rest on probation. Upon probation, he will be under sex offender special conditions, and is forbidden to have contact with the victims or minors under the age of 18. In September 2018, administrators at the school became aware of a text conversation involving McKendrick and two female students that led to an investigation.
McKendrick had been the school’s chorus teacher since 2007.
Investigators with Cherokee County School Police and Cherokee Sheriff’s Office determined that many students had experienced similar behavior from McKendrick, prosecutors said.
Eight of the victims delivered impact statements at the plea hearing, describing the abuse as traumatizing and a betrayal of trust, according to the district attorney’s office. They said they continue to feel self-doubt and insecurity, and they struggle to trust anyone, especially those in positions of authority. Victims said they were relieved that the defendant admitted to the charges by pleading guilty.
Holly Springs residents will soon see new playground equipment, as well as a dog park when visiting Barrett Park later this year.
The Holly Springs City Council unanimously approved a $16,323 professional design service fee for improvements to Barrett Park Thursday to BM&K Inc. Another design service fee for $12,123 to the same company was approved for maintenance to the Barrett Springs detention pond.
Improvements to the park include replacing the current playground equipment with new equipment, as well as replacing the basketball goal and improving the court. The city also plans to add an off-leash dog park, closed in with a chain length fence and connected to water to accommodate canine watering stations. The off-leash dog park will be inside the park on the west side of the gazebo, Holly Springs City Manager Rob Logan said Friday. The project also includes installing drains at the playground and refreshing the site with play-safe mulch, constructing a closed stormwater system from the east boundary of the park to the creek, and resurfacing and striping the parking lot along with the entrance road.
BM&K will provide demo plans, a grading plan, drainage design, utility sheet and erosion control, according to city documents.
Sequoyah-Con, a three-part miniature convention series hosted by the Sequoyah Regional Library system, will be held at area libraries on March 4, 11 and 18.
Two of the three events will be at Cherokee County locations: the R.T. Jones Memorial Library in Canton and the Woodstock Public Library in Woodstock. The conventions are free to participate in and are open to all ages.
March 4, the R.T. Jones Memorial Library in Canton is hosting a Pokémon program schedule starting at 10 a.m. that includes Pokémon-themed crafts, scavenger hunts, cross-stitch, paper circuits, terrariums, and more. There will also be two trivia games, one for adults and one for children. The program will end with a Pokémon costume contest from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m.
On March 11, the next event in the series is a gaming-themed program at the Gilmer County Library in Ellijay. Visitors of all ages are invited to play different games throughout the day, and there will be kid-specific games in the youth activity room. There will be a craft market, Breath of the Wild scavenger hunt, a fan art display and more. The last event, hosted by the Woodstock Public Library, is a cryptids program. The itinerary includes activities begin at 10:30 a.m. and include age-group crafting hours, X-Files trivia, a Pet Semetary stuffed animal craft, ectoplasm slime making and more.
Special guests at the Woodstock library include author Delilah Dawson, storyteller Tracy Walker and a representative from Georgia Paranormal Investigations. Walker will be hosting a Bigfoot story time from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. March 18, open to all ages. Dawson, a published Georgia fantasy and science fiction writer, will be hosting a Q&A panel from 2-3 p.m. Georgia Paranormal Investigations will give a presentation about paranormal activity and ghost hunting from 3:30 to 5 p.m.
The library system is also holding a reading challenge on Beanstack where participants can earn badges for reading books related to convention themes. The reading challenge ends March 31.
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