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Crisp County High School’s varsity basketball teams traveled over to Albany on Tuesday night for region games against Monroe High School. The Lady Cougars fell to Monroe in a close game by a final score of 56-55, while the Tornadoes knocked off the Cougars in the boys’ contest by a final score line of 76-51.

Monroe 56, Lady Cougars 55

The Lady Cougars put in their best offensive output of the season, posting a season high 55 points, but they ultimately fell to Monroe by just one point at 56-55 on Tuesday night in Albany.

The Lady Cougars trailed 8-7 at the end of the first quarter, but subsequently outscored Monroe 16-7 in the second period to take a 23-15 lead into halftime. Monroe went on to outscore Crisp 41-32 in the second half to escape with the 56-55 win.

Aaliyah Hardemon led the Lady Cougars in scoring on the night with a career-high 23 points. She hit six three-pointers on nine attempts and also posted three rebounds, four assists, two steals and a block in the game.

Peyton Bozeman knocked down a pair of three-point shots and was the only other Crisp County player in double-figures on the night. She finished the game with 13 points, a rebound, and two steals.

Final stats for other Crisp County players were as follows: E’lacious Holt- five points, one rebound and one steal; Adasia Lee- four points, eight rebounds, and one assist; Alexis Porter- four points, one rebound, and five steals; Vernasia Sanders- four points and one rebound; Jadah Mumphrey- two points; Zabria Armstrong- two rebounds and one steal; Tykeemah Armstrong- two rebounds and one steal; Chelsey Harvey- one rebound and one steal.

The Lady Cougars fell to 1-18 on the season and 0-6 in region 1-AAA play with the loss. Crisp will be on the road for a region game against the Worth County Lady Rams (5-16, 2-4) tomorrow night at 6 p.m.

Monroe 76, Cougars 51

The Monroe tornadoes defeated the Cougars 76-51 on Tuesday night to open up a two game lead over Crisp for first place in the regular season region 1-AAA standings.

Ty McKenzie was the leading scorer for Crisp in the contest with 11 points to go with five rebounds, two steals and two blocks.

Other Cougar stats from the defeat against Monroe were as follows: PJ Coleman- nine points, four rebounds, one assist, four steals and one block; KJ Williams- seven points, one rebound, two assists and two steals; Cortez Thomas- five points, two rebounds, one assist and one steal; Jayren Fox- four points, three rebounds, and one steal; Nathan Willis and Malik Hall- four points and three rebounds each; AJ Lofton- three points, one assist and three steals; Willie Poole- two points, one rebound and one steal; Tubby Spivey- one point, two rebounds, one assist, and one block; Damion Cross- one point and one rebound.

The defeat put the Cougars at 7-12 overall on the season and 4-2 in region play, which has them in second place in the standings. The Cougars are a game ahead of the Worth County Rams (12-9, 3-3) in the region, and the two teams play tomorrow night in Sylvester after the conclusion of the girls’ game.