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AMERICUS – The Sumter County Panthers (SCHS) came into Friday’s home game against Macon County (MC) with hopes of upsetting the Bulldogs. Unfortunately, however, the Panthers struggled to score on offense and committed numerous turnovers against the strong defense of MC. As a result, SCHS fell to MC by the score of 57-42 at the Panther Pit.

“We got outplayed. We hung in there, but we missed a lot of shots,” SCHS Head Coach Johnny Genwright said. “We were with in seven of them at one point and we should have kept the energy up, but we just didn’t make shots. We’ve got to make shots. We had a good defensive battle. We stopped them at the beginning, and they made shots and we didn’t.”

Austin Davis led the Panthers in scoring with eight points, Braylon Terry had seven and Javin Lewis had six in the losing cause.

It was a low-scoring defensive struggle through much of the first quarter and by the end of the quarter, the Bulldogs had a 10-8 lead.

MC quickly scored four unanswered points to start the second quarter, prompting Genwright to call a timeout with 7:11 to go. Out of the timeout, Austin Davis was able to score down low and got fouled on the play. However, he missed the free throw and the Panthers trailed 14-10.

During this period of the game, the Panthers were struggling offensively and were committing turnovers. The Bulldogs were able to take advantage of it by going on a 6-0 run to take a 20-10 lead. LeBron Brown finally broke the SCHS scoreless drought with two free throws, but the Bulldogs responded with another run that was capped off by a three-pointer from Frankie Raines Jr., making the score 25-16 MC at the half.

Over the first three minutes of the third quarter, both teams traded baskets, but the Panthers were not able to cut into the Bulldogs’ lead. Then Eric Rice gave MC a 34-22 lead with a three-pointer. This was the beginning of a 13-7 run by the Bulldogs and it was capped off by a three-pointer at the buzzer by Lavoris Smith. By the end of the third quarter, the Panthers trailed 44-29.

The Panthers tried their best to get themselves back into the game in the fourth quarter, but were unable to cut into the Bulldogs’ double-digit lead. As a result, they would go on to lose to MC by the score of 57-42.

Frankie Raines Jr. led the Bulldogs in scoring with 16 points, Eric Rice had 12 and Dontavious Collier chipped in 10 in the winning cause.

The Panthers will step back into region play and host Dodge County on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.