Sand Rock girls continue strong start, even in losses: What we learned from the Geraldine tournament

Geraldine hosted a three day Thanksgiving shootout tournament, with plenty of Gadsden area teams in attendance.

The tournament offered a great look in the early season at plenty of teams but, with it being early in the season, some of the boys teams were still awaiting reinforcements from football. There's still plenty of basketball left to be played with area tournaments coming in late January.

Here's a couple of takeaways from the three-day tournament.

Sand Rock girls hold own with bigger schools

Sand Rock is one of the smallest schools in 2A, but held its own against 5A Boaz and 6A Fort Payne, only falling to both teams by two points. Against Boaz, the Wildcats led after the first quarter before they missed 24 straight shots and let Boaz run away with the game. Sand Rock battled back and its defense gave it a chance to tie the game in the final seconds.

The Wildcats have a tough schedule but that should help set them up for success when play matters.

Geraldine starts strong with reinforcements coming

Geraldine was off to 3-0 start to its season before falling to Douglas in its final game of the Thanksgiving shootout. The strong start becomes more impressive when one realizes a couple of its senior leaders are still fighting in the AHSAA football playoffs. Connor Johnson, Lucas Bryant and Redick Smith have been shouldering the load, reaching double-digit scoring in all three of the shootout games.

Southside's injuries could limit potential

There should be high hopes for the Panthers this season but have lost some of their seniors to knee injuries. It means that the Panthers are younger than they thought they would be. This team could still reach higher expectations but the youngsters will need to step up.

Cherokee County girls have options

While Mary H Johnson is the team's No. 1 option, there are others behind her that could make this team one to watch. In Game 1 of the shootout it had three scorers with more than 10 points each. In the second game, Cherokee County had only Johnson above that mark, but a few others were right on the cusp.

Maxwell Donaldson covers high school sports and Jacksonville State athletics for the Gadsden Times. Find him on Twitter/X @_Max_Donaldson and contact him at MDonaldson@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on The Gadsden Times: What we learned from the Geraldine basketball Thanksgiving shootout