Georgia
Jones hits 7 3s, No. 13 Auburn beats Georgia 92-78 to earn SEC double bye
AUBURN, Ala. (AP) — Denver Jones scored a season-high 21 points, making 7 of 9 3-pointers, and No. 13 Auburn closed the regular season with a 92-78 victory over Georgia on Saturday night.
The Tigers (24-7, 13-5 Southeastern Conference) secured the No. 4 seed and a double bye in next week’s SEC Tournament with their third straight victory.
They already had a double-digit lead over the Bulldogs (16-15, 6-12) much of the way. Then Jones hit three straight 3s in a two-minute span to help Auburn build a 60-39 cushion.
Georgia cut it to 12 points in the final 9 minutes but then Jones hit No. 7 and Jaylin Williams followed that with a 3-pointer of his own.
The Tigers came into the game tied for second in the SEC with South Carolina, Alabama and Kentucky — all of whom won their games. Auburn won the head-to-head tiebreaker with the Gamecocks.
Johni Broome had 14 points, six rebounds and five assists for Auburn. Williams scored 13. Both were honored on Senior Night before the game. Dylan Cardwell added 10 points.
Silas Demary Jr. led Georgia with 15 points and made all three attempts on 3s. Russel Tchewa added 14 points and 10 rebounds while Noah Thomasson scored. 12.
Auburn pushed its lead to 14 points six times in the first half, the last coming on Williams’ fast-break dunk at the buzzer. He slammed it home after a bounce pass from Chad Baker-Mazara following a missed Georgia free throw with 4 seconds left.
It was the team’s 17th assist among 19 first-half baskets, and the Tigers finished with 29.
BIG PICTURE
Georgia: Started freshmen Blue Cain, Demary and Dylan James for the second straight game. Made 7 of 22 3-pointers and 17 of 30 free throw attempts.
Auburn: Swept Georgia for the fourth time since 2018. Before that stretch, the Tigers hadn’t swept a home-and-home series with the Bulldogs since 1986. … Had assists on 10 of its first 11 baskets, from 10 different players.
WILLIAMS’ FINALE
It was the home finale for Williams, one of only three fifth-year seniors in the SEC who played all four years at the same school. Williams is the winningest player in program history with 110.
UP NEXT
Both teams head to Nashville, Tennessee, for the SEC Tournament.
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AP college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-basketball
Georgia
Georgia 400 lane closures begin Monday night
ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) — A week of lane closures on Georgia 400 begins Monday night as crews work to build new express lanes.
The Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) said the closures will affect northbound and southbound lanes along a 16-mile stretch, from MARTA’s North Springs station in Fulton County to around 1 mile north of McFarland Parkway in Forsyth County, from Monday through Friday.
GDOT said the closures will last from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. starting Monday, with some lane closures lasting from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. starting Tuesday.
The department urges drivers to expect delays, use caution and reduce their speed while traveling through work zones.
Below are the details on the closures, according to GDOT:
Georgia 400 Northbound
- SR 400 (Georgia 400) NB from Abernathy Road (MM 8) to Holcomb Bridge Road (MM 15) – Single outside right-lane and shoulder closure – Monday, Dec. 1 to Friday, Dec. 5, 9 p.m. – 5 a.m.
- SR 400 NB from Holcomb Bridge Road (MM 15) to Old Milton Parkway (MM 19) – Single, outside right-lane and shoulder closure – Monday, Dec. 1 to Friday, Dec. 5, 9 p.m. – 5 a.m.
- SR 400 NB from Old Milton Parkway (MM 19) to SR 141 (MM 27) – Single, outside right-lane and shoulder closure – Monday, Dec. 1 to Friday, Dec. 5, 9 p.m. – 5 a.m.
- SR 400 NB from Abernathy Road (MM 8) to Holcomb Bridge Road (MM 15) – Double, inside left-lane and shoulder closure – Monday, Dec. 1 to Friday, Dec. 5, 9 p.m. – 5 a.m.
- SR 400 NB from Holcomb Bridge Road (MM 15) to Old Milton Parkway (MM 19) – Double, inside left-lane and shoulder closure – Monday, Dec. 1 to Friday, Dec. 5, 9 p.m. – 5 a.m.
- SR 400 NB from Old Milton Parkway (MM 19) to SR 141 (MM 27) – Double, inside left-lane and shoulder closure – Monday, Dec. 1 to Friday, Dec. 5, 9 p.m. – 5 a.m.
- SR 400 NB from McGinnis Ferry Road to Big Creek Trail – Outside shoulder closure – Tuesday, Dec. 2 to Friday, Dec. 5, 9 a.m. – 3 p.m.
- SR 400 NB Northridge Road to Roberts Drive – Outside shoulder closure – Tuesday, Dec. 2 to Friday, Dec. 5, 9 a.m. – 3 p.m.
Georgia 400 Southbound
- SR 400 (Georgia 400) SB from SR 141 (MM 27) to Old Milton Parkway (MM 19) – Single, outside right-lane and shoulder closure – Monday, Dec. 1 to Friday, Dec. 5, 9 p.m. – 5 a.m.
- SR 400 SB from Old Milton Parkway (MM 19) to Holcomb Bridge Road (MM 15) – Single, outside right-lane and shoulder closure – Monday, Dec. 1 to Friday, Dec. 5, 9 p.m. – 5 a.m.
- SR 400 SB from Holcomb Bridge Road (MM 15) to Abernathy Road (MM 8) – Single, outside right-lane and shoulder closure – Monday, Dec. 1 to Friday, Dec. 5, 9 p.m. – 5 a.m.
- SR 400 SB from SR 141 (MM 27) to Old Milton Parkway (MM 19) – Double, inside left-lane and shoulder closure – Monday, Dec. 1 to Friday, Dec. 5, 9 p.m. – 5 a.m.
- SR 400 SB from Old Milton Parkway (MM 19) to Holcomb Bridge Road (MM 15) – Double, inside left-lane and shoulder closure – Monday, Dec. 1 to Friday, Dec. 5, 9 p.m. – 5 a.m.
- SR 400 SB from Holcomb Bridge Road (MM 15) to Abernathy Road (MM 8) – Double, inside left-lane and shoulder closure – Monday, Dec. 1, to Friday, Dec. 5, 9 p.m. – 5 a.m.
Other locations
- Windward Parkway NB Exit – Single, left or right lane closure – Monday, Dec. 1 to Friday, Dec. 5, 9 p.m. – 5 a.m.
- Mansell Road NB Exit – Single, right lane closure – Monday, Dec. 1 to Friday, Dec. 5, 9 p.m. – 5 a.m.
- Roberts Drive – Lane closure – Tuesday, Dec. 2 to Friday, Dec. 5, 9 a.m. – 3 p.m.
The work schedule could change, so drivers should check the SR 400 Express Lanes website for the latest updates, GDOT said. Drivers can also check updates by calling “511,” visiting 511ga.org, or by downloading the “Georgia511” app.
RELATED COVERAGE:
Tolled express lanes on Ga. 400 become financial ‘reality’ after federal loan
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Georgia
‘We have become so divided’: Georgia district prepares for life after Marjorie Taylor Greene
Marjorie Taylor Greene for president. Randy Bone rolled the idea around in his hands for a second as he stood inside his wife’s antique shop in Ringgold, Georgia. He’s heard the talk. He’s even seen the prediction market action. He doesn’t have a problem with his boisterous, attention-seeking congresswoman. He just doesn’t think it will work.
“I don’t know. I don’t see her as one that is very attractive … You’ve got to focus on those that are kind of in the middle, and I don’t think that she’s unifying enough,” he said.
Greene has spent five years in Congress, drawing attention for wild conspiracies and outrageous statements about national politics. Last week, she announced that she would resign her seat in January.
Greene’s voters in north-west Georgia, contemplating her legacy with her impending exit from Congress, said they are less concerned about the culture war issues that have dominated her tenure than they are about the kitchen table concerns that drive their discontent.
Bone, 55, a Ringgold resident and Trump supporter, said he is conservative but doesn’t describe himself as a Republican, though he is quick to distance himself from Democrats, except for former ones such as the director of national intelligence,, Tulsi Gabbard, and the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F Kennedy Jr.
When asked what he wants out of Washington, he talks economic issues. “We want the economy to keep improving, you know what I mean? You want to be able to afford gas. You want to be able to afford vacations.”
Even in Ringgold, a suburb of Chattanooga, Tennessee, housing costs have skyrocketed. Bone described how rapidly rising home values and high mortgage rates trap families like his: they have equity but cannot afford to move. He believes both parties have contributed to systemic economic problems.
“I’ve got a son that’s about to be 18. We have housing issues and it’s great for the boomers … Their houses have appreciated and appreciated, but that’s pushed out the younger kids to where they can’t afford houses.”
In the weeks before Greene’s break with Trump over the Epstein files, the congresswoman had been sounding alarms about the rising cost of health insurance and how it would affect voters. Trump and Greene have been trading increasingly vitriolic public comments ever since she signed the discharge petition to bring a vote before congress to release additional documents in the case.
Joy Thorton, who owns an antique store and other buildings in downtown Ringgold, said she has never been a Greene supporter, and finds the spat hard to take seriously.
“If she was really pissed off, she would resign now, instead of waiting until January so she gets her pension,” Thorton said. “None of them should get it.”
Deep disagreement with Trump turned Thorton into a Democrat, she said. But her concerns remain fundamentally conservative: rising property values have come with rising property taxes. Homes under construction aren’t affordable for the people who have grown up in the area.
“I bet you there are a bunch of people in this county who will not be able to pay their property tax,” Thorton said. “And if it triples over a year, the super-wealthy will buy all that property out from under them.”
Greene has spoken out against Wall Street hedge fund managers buying up single-family residential properties, in the context of criticizing a Trump proposal for 50-year mortgages as a solution to the housing crisis. The public largely missed her comments, lost in the larger conflict between the two.
There’s a vitriol in politics both in Washington and locally that seems pervasive, said Steven Henry, chair of the Catoosa county board of commissioners.
“We have become so divided – not just Democrat and Republican, but Republican left and Republican extremist,” Henry said. “I’ve been a Republican all my life, yet I’ve got Republicans who hate me because I’m not Republican enough. Even though I never raised taxes and held them every year I was in office … It boils down to I’m not loud, I’m not boisterous.”
Catoosa county is politically as red as a barn with a “See Rock City” sign on the way to Lookout Mountain. But internecine fighting on the county’s Republican party committee threatened to administer conservative “purity tests” to candidates before allowing them to run as Republicans – a gambit halted by state judges that remains the subject of a federal lawsuit.
Henry expects a scramble of office seekers for the open seat, with resignations from local office holders and a cascade of highly contested elections down the ballot. He did not say if he would seek the nomination himself. Instead, he lamented the unwillingness of competent leaders to step up and run for public office, its luster tarnished by withering, extreme abuse taken from a disillusioned public, he said.
Even Greene in parting has described an increase in death threats against her as motivation for her retreat.
“Oh I haven’t suffered enough for you while you post all day behind a screen?” Greene said in response to a comment on X by conservative commentator Mike Cernovich. “Do I have to stay until I’m assassinated like our friend Charlie Kirk. Will that be good enough for you then?”
The internal squabbling over ideology will eventually give Democrats an opening, even in a place where Republican leadership thoroughly dominates local politics, Henry said. “Maybe it will take some strong opponent on the Democratic side to get us back, focused on just doing the job.”
For Charles Carroll, owner of the Broken Horseshoe Winery in Ringgold and a staunch conservative, elected leaders should be focused on eliminating corruption, keeping taxes low and keeping the currency strong. His store has a video display that – in between messages about his business – intermittently flashes Trump’s face and a message of support for the city.
For Carroll, Greene’s appeal has been rooted in challenging the status quo. “I want somebody in there that’s going to ask the questions nobody will ask and try to get the answers,” he said. “Our forefathers fought for this nation to make it free, and I don’t know of anything in this nation that’s free any more.”
His winery business has been down 30% this year, which he attributes to economic conditions that are squeezing his customers.
“It’s not just the wine industry. Every local business that I’ve talked to is struggling right now,” Carroll said. “As a country, as individuals in America, you used to have some extra income after your bills and stuff and you could splurge a little bit on this or that, go out to eat or something. Now by the time you pay your bills and stuff, from what I’m seeing from the average people out here, there’s nothing left over.”
That’s the problem that needs solving, he said.
Georgia
4-star Omarii Sanders commits to Vanderbilt football over Tennessee, Georgia
Everything about Vanderbilt football felt right for Franklin Road Academy junior Omarii Sanders.
Now, he represents a milestone in Commodores coach Clark Lea’s success.
Sanders, a 6-foot-4, 210-pound, four-star prospect, verbally committed to Vanderbilt on Nov. 29 over Tennessee, Texas A&M, Georgia and Miami.
In Sanders, Vanderbilt has a chance to sign its first high school player ranked among 247Sports’ top 50 players nationally, according to the website’s data. Sanders is ranked as the No. 4 linebacker and No. 49 player overall nationally, according to the 247Sports Composite.
“It was Coach Lea’s message and the way his team has progressed from last year to this year. You can see they’re on the right path,” Sanders said. “He (Lea) is just a very intelligent guy. I just like how his demeanor is. He knows what he wants and what he wants out of the team and how to get it out of them.”
Vanderbilt has forged its way into College Football Playoff discussions this fall under Lea and is enjoying one of its best seasons ever. The university signed Lea to a contract extension on Nov. 28. In his fifth season at Vandy, Lea — whose name was mentioned with recent job openings that included Penn State and Auburn — has an overall record of 25-35.
The Commodores recruited Sanders as a safety, the position he currently plays in high school. That appealed to him, he said. Schools were also recruiting Sanders as an outside linebacker or edge-rusher because of his big frame.
Sanders has also been a star receiver while helping lead FRA (11-1) to the Division II-AA state championship game for the first time since 1991. The Panthers play BGA (12-1) for the title on Dec. 4.
Sanders’ only official visit to Vanderbilt this season was for its 17-10 home win over Missouri on Oct. 25.
The atmosphere was nothing like the Vanderbilt football program remembered growing up.
“It’s very different now. They didn’t win much when I was young, but as you can see now you have to play hard to beat them,” Sanders said. “They’re not at the bottom of the barrel anymore.”
Tyler Palmateer covers high school sports for The Tennessean. Have a story idea for Tyler? Reach him at tpalmateer@tennessean.com and on the X platform, @tpalmateer83.
He also contributes to The Tennessean’s high school sports newsletter, The Bootleg. Subscribe to The Bootleg here.
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