Take 2 of the Bowdon-Mt. Zion Region 6-A openers drew a trio of officials fortunately, although the effects of a day layover was quite evident early on Wednesday evening.

After the Atlanta-area officials had a no-show for Tuesday night’s regularly-scheduled doubleheader between the county rivals, the games were postponed a day, something both Lady Eagle coach Millie Grimes and Red Devilette coach Melissa Ring thought contributed to the sluggish play in the opening minutes of Mt. Zion’s 37-21 road win.

“Yeah, I think we both did. We came out, and we were kind of not playing at full speed, I didn’t feel like,” Grimes said. “We got on them a little bit, and they realized that we’ve got to come out and play hard.”

Ring, who said her team put a lot of time and focus at Monday’s practice into preparing for Mt. Zion’s 1-3-1 zone defense, felt like it was all for naught by Wednesday night.

“Everything we went over, it’s like my kids forgot,” Ring said. “We haven’t practiced since Monday because we had some specific things that we were preparing for, as far as defensively what they were going to do. It was like they couldn’t remember any of it.”

And while being moved back a day was an inconvenience, both coaches didn’t want to use it entirely as an excuse for the lack of sharpness.

After Bowdon (0-4, 0-1 Region 6-A) opened the game by scoring the first five points, Mt. Zion (9-0, 1-0 Region 6-A) would go on a 12-0 run to take the lead for good.

“Once we started playing hard defensively, we started making a few things happen. A few turnovers and got our rhythm going a little bit,” Grimes said.

What did concern the MZ coach quite a bit was her team’s free-throw shooting in the opening 16 minutes, as it connected on just 4-of-15, including missing 10 consecutive shots from the charity stripe during one stretch. The Lady Eagles did hit 7-of-12 in the second half to help remedy the situation.

Still, free-throw shooting will be a point of order for Grimes after sitting through a shaky first half.

“Oh, gosh. Free-throw shooting in the first half was atrocious. I was thinking, ‘Oh, no, this is going to be a nightmare,’” Grimes said. “But we made a few and then made a few in the second half. But that’s something we’ve got to work on. We’ve got to hit those.”

For the young Red Devilettes, who had five freshmen on the floor at one time, turnovers proved to be the bugaboo, especially early.

Bowdon committed 20 turnovers in the first half and 33 for the game, most of which were unforced, being all the more frustrating for Ring.

“(Mt. Zion) played well. Not taking anything away from them. But in the beginning, we were beating ourselves,” Ring said. “I mean, we had 20 turnovers at halftime. You can’t beat anybody with 20 turnovers at halftime. Our goal is to have less than 10 in a game.”

Ring said the turnovers are uncharacteristic of her ball club.

“We don’t do a lot of things exceptionally well, but we usually take care of the ball fairly well,” Ring said. “So that was a big disappointment. We just couldn’t get our focus right. Our intensity level was not there.”

Red Devilette freshman forward Jacole Stephens finished with eight points and nine rebounds to lead Bowdon.

Pacing the Lady Eagles were a trio of scorers in double figures: sophomore point guard Jasmin Kierbow (12 points, 4 rebounds), senior guard Sherika Camp (12 points, 6 rebounds) and junior center Raven Chism (11 points, 4 rebounds).

“I was real proud of the girls for getting that first (region) win and stepping it up when we asked them to step it up,” Grimes said.

Bowdon boys 67, Mt. Zion 30: The Red Devils (4-0, 1-0 Region 6-A) scored the game’s first 24 points en route to the one-sided victory to open Region 6-A action, as Mt. Zion (5-4, 0-1 Region 6-A) didn’t hit the scoreboard until the 6:52 mark of the second quarter on a Jake Lemmings bucket.

“That’s what we wanted to do. We wanted to just come out and play hard, and I thought we did,” Bowdon coach Vic Coggins said. “We did a pretty good job early, especially with our defense. We got some good pressure on those guys.”

Mt. Zion was playing without its top scorer — senior guard Christian Heard — who was sitting out the first of a two-game suspension after getting ejected from a game in Ranburne, Ala., this past Saturday.

Still, Eagle coach Bill Bailey was displeased with the overall lack of intensity his team showed out of the gates.

“We got out-athleted. We got out-played. We got out-hustled,” Bailey said. “We didn’t show up the first half. I mean, I don’t know if we were in awe or what, but it was definite that we didn’t show up the first half.”

Darious Moten (14 points, 10 rebounds) led the Red Devils offensively, followed by Terell Thornton (10 points), J.B. Stephens (9 points), Tydus Staples (9 points), Nathan Montgomery (8 points) and Trae McDaniel (7 points). Parrish Germany (9 points) paced Mt. Zion, followed by Corey Loftin (6 points, 6 rebounds).

Coggins said following Tuesday night’s ordeal with the officials not showing up, he received several apologies by Wednesday morning.

“Their words were, ‘We dropped the ball,’” Coggins said.

“It was kind of a nightmare situation with the officials not showing up (Tuesday night). That kind of kept some of the fans away, I think, (Wednesday). So we were disappointed in that whole situation. But we’re pleased to be 1-0 in the region.”