Rockdale Citizen

Photo by Howard Reed

COVINGTON -- For the second consecutive game, Newton's Derrick Henry broke his career-high scoring mark.

After recording 33 points Tuesday against Newnan, he raised the bar with 34 points the next night against East Coweta.

However, Henry's offensive Wednesday outburst wasn't enough. East Coweta's Madarious Gibbs tallied 49 points to lead the Indians to an 84-83 overtime victory over Newton (18-4 overall, 10-1 Region 2-AAAAA).

The win by East Coweta (8-11, 4-7) snapped Newton's 27-game region winning streak.

The Rams led by six points, 49-43, and scored 22 points in the final period. But Gibbs poured in 21 fourth-quarter points to send the game into overtime with the score tied 71-71.

"You have to give it to No. 3. It was a career game and he'll probably never do it again," Newton coach Rick Rasmussen said. "You have to give it to him, he wouldn't let his team lose."

The Rams again took the lead in overtime before Gibbs came back and tied the game with 1:31 remaining.

After Henry gave Newton a two-point lead, Gibbs responded with a 3-pointer.

With less than four seconds left, Gibbs was fouled on a 3-point attempt. After making all three free throws, the Rams had one more shot, but it missed the mark.

"We gave up 84 (points) in our own gym. It was basically a shootout," Rasmussen said. "Derrick wasn't missing, that guy wasn't missing. It was a fun game, but the end result stinks.

"I think it may be good for us because we play them on Tuesday and they'll have to play that well again to beat us. Maybe we'll be more convinced that No. 3 is pretty good."

While Henry led the Rams in scoring, he wasn't the only offensive stalwart for Newton. Three other players registered double-digit points -- Alex Ordu (13), Willie Smith (12) and Shane Henry (10).

Eighteen of Gibbs' points came from the free-throw line, where he was 18-for-21.

Newton girls 51, East Coweta 27

Despite not turning in a complete-game performance, the Newton girls were able to best East Coweta 51-27 in Wednesday's first game.

The Lady Rams (12-9, 7-3) were guilty of seven turnovers in the first half alone and connected on just 56 percent of their free throws, making 14 of 25 in the game. But their defense more than made up for it, forcing East Coweta (5-13, 1-9) to turn the ball over 17 times.

"That's definitely a first," Newton head coach Tiffani Johnson said of the turnovers. "When we can start turning that defense into some offense, it will definitely help us out a lot.

"It definitely wasn't a pretty shooting night. We had some turnovers, and it was an ugly win. But at the end of the day, a W is a W."

Newton's defense held the Lady Indians to four points in the first quarter before allowing five in the second. Of East Coweta's nine points, six came from field goals and the other three from the free-throw line.

"We did a good job on defense," Johnson said. "I didn't want us to get complacent and sit back or feel like we didn't have to go hard. I wanted to make sure they stayed intense, because we've struggled with that throughout the season. It put some pressure on us and it kept us intense. We were able to create some turnovers, even tough we missed some layups."

The Lady Rams did an admirable job on defense, but their offensive struggle caused some concern for Johnson as the team missed six shots in the paint.

A bright spot for Newton was Qaiserah Sharif, who led all scorers with 17 points, followed by Tai Avery who had nine points.

The one surprise of the game was junior Emili Russ entering the game for the first time this season after injuring her knee in the preseason.

"It was big, big, big. The team loved it," Johnson said. "We've been waiting to get her in. I think she needs to get those first-game jitters out of the way. I think she's ready to go a little harder at practice. ... It's definitely a big moral boost."

Newton will be back in action at 4 p.m. Saturday against visiting Westlake.