Tri-Cities defeats Newnan in region final

SHARPSBURG-Struggles on offense cost the Newnan Cougars Saturday night as they were defeated 44-30 by the Tri-Cities Bulldogs in the finals of the Region 3-AAAAAA boys tournament at the John Thrower Gymnasium.
The loss dropped the Cougars' overall record to 17-10 as they will enter the AAAAAA state playoffs with the number two seed from the region and will host the Morrow Mustangs Tuesday night at the Max Bass Athletic Center.
The winner will face the winner of North Cobb and Coffee County this weekend.
The Bulldogs, seeded fifth in the region tournament, improved to 12-13 and have the region's top seed as they will host the Luella Lions Tuesday night in Fulton County.
The Bulldogs scored the first six points of the game before Doniel Dean converted a free throw to get the Cougars on the scoreboard but they fell into a deeper hole as the Bulldogs scored five more points to take an 11-1 lead with 4:17 remaining in the first period.
A 6-3 streak by Newnan cut the margin to 14-7 going into the second period and a 7-2 run concluded by a three-point basket by Kaceon Person gave the faithful hope with 5:35 remaining but Tri-Cities responded with a 6-1 finish to the half and took a 22-15 lead into the locker room.
The second period opened with promise for the Cougars as Jannson Williams rebounded a miss and scored a basket in the first seconds to cut the margin to 22-17 but the offense ran out of gas as an 11-5 run by the Bulldogs over the balance of the stanza gave them a 33-22 lead going into the final eight minutes.
The futility on offense continued for Newnan as they were limited to three free throws by Immanuel Griggs in the first 6:22 of the fourth period until Dean converted a pair of field goals in remaining 90 seconds.
Griggs and Dean led Newnan in scoring with 12 points each while DeAndre Slaughter led Tri-Cities with 11 and Charles Stokes contributed nine points.
Meanwhile, the final game in the East Coweta gymnasium for lady Indians head coach Paula Jones was not what she had in mind as the Westlake Lady Lions cruised to a 67-31 win in the consolation game of the rgeion tournament.
With the game tied at 2-2 with 6:22 remaining in the first period, the Lady Lions went on 42-6 run over the balance of the half to take a 44-8 cushion to the locker room.
An 18-12 third period gave the Lady Lions a 52-20 lead going into the final stanza.
Westlake (18- 9) will take the region's third seed to Newton County to face the Lady Rams who are the number two seed in Region 2 while East Coweta (6-20) will take the number four seed to Covinghton for a matchup with the Alcovy Lady Tigers Tuesday night at 6:00.