Fans packed the gym at Athens High School Thursday night to give first-year boys basketball coach Stace Tedford a warm welcome during the Golden Eagles home opener.
However, Columbia put a damper on the coach's debut as they handed Athens a 69-60 loss.
The Eagles led 13-7 after one quarter of play, but a 7-0 run by Athens at the beginning of the second period put the Golden Eagles up 15-14 with 4:34 to play before the half. It took several lead changes, but Columbia regained the lead with just seconds left to take a 25-24 advantage into the locker room.
A layup by Athens' Gavin Stanley put the Golden Eagles up 26-25 in the opening minutes of the second half, but Columbia took the lead for good on jump shot by Tevin Simon.
The largest lead of the game came midway through the final period of play as the Eagles pulled away to a 17 point margin, but Athens slowly narrowed the score to 62-52 after a 6-0 run that started with Julius Jones sinking both shots from the charity stripe. Back-to-back layups by Jones and Tracy Twitty with less than a minute remaining made it 65-58 but wouldn't be enough as Columbia pulled away for the win.
Neil Malone led the Golden Eagles (0-1) with 14 points. Twitty contributed with 10, followed by Thomas Townsand with nine. Jones tossed in seven points for Athens.
Girls
Athens 59, Columbia 15
The Lady Golden Eagles cruised to their third win of the season after leading 33-2 at the half.
Destany McLin paced Athens (3-1) with 12 points and five rebounds while Destiny Bailey had nine points. Ashley Jackson and Lecresha Horton contributed with eight points a piece. Elizabeth Ming recorded six rebounds.
Both teams host Huntsville tonight.
