Brave varsity basketball sweeps Oak Mountain

(Franklin, GA) — The Heard County High School boys and girls varsity basketball teams each scored big home opening wins over Oak Mountain Academy Tuesday night in Franklin.

The Lady Braves won handily 51-22 to move to 1-1 on the young season, while the Braves gutted out a narrow 38-34 win to earn new head coach Derek Smith his first win as a varsity coach.

The four point in the first regular season game for the boys was hard-fought throughout as several football players debuted on the court for the first time this season.

Kahlil Cofield (#1) led the Braves with 14 Tuesday night

Leading the way in the win was Kahlil Cofield who scored 14 points including two baskets from beyond the arc.

Ayden Cannon also had a nice game with seven points all coming in the first half while Jameer Cook scored six including four of six from the charity stripe.

Rounding out the scoring for the Braves was Ashton Bonner with five, Isaiah O’Neal with four and Ty Smith with two.

“It was great to have the football guys back with us tonight — just the speed of the game was so much faster — now they did not much know what was going on, but just the fact that they played fast was really good,” said Coach Derek Smith after the game. “It was great to get this first win with my wife and parents here tonight.”

The Lady Braves had no trouble bouncing back from a game one loss at Villa Rica as they rolled to the 29 point win over Oak Mountain.

Senior Morgan Kay led the Lady Braves with 14 including three 3-point baskets and junior Sophia Long tallied 13 in the rout.

Other leading scorers for the Lady Braves were Hermonie Garza with six, Tori Caldwell with five, freshman Shyann Kelley with five, and freshman Jasmine Owens with four in her first game as a starter.

“Of course we have some things we still need to clean up and we have a couple of players we need to get back, but I thought our freshmen Jasmine and Shyann got some really good experience with that playing time,” said Coach Helen Akins after the game.

“We are going to need them down the stretch so it is good to get them some experience and some playing time. Overall I saw some hard work and I am super happy with the result.”

Both teams will be back in action at home tonight as they host Troup County. The girls will tip at 6:00 PM followed by the boys at 7:30 PM.