The odds are stacked against the Cedartown Bulldogs, but they’ve got some mountains to climb first over the coming days in region basketball if they hope to get into contention for the playoffs.

Sitting at 1-5 in 7-4A after some crucial losses (9-11 overall heading into the final games of the season,) the Bulldogs are doing much better than their winter campaign in 2022-23. But if they can’t overcome upcoming opponents in Heritage, Sonoraville, Central and Southeast Whitfield, they’re going to miss the playoffs.

This comes off a hard loss on Tuesday to Northwest Whitfield (60-53,) which put the Dawgs in fifth place in region play fifth place and in dire need of some late season luck to get them into contention again.

With a Friday homestand against Heritage-Catoosa, and a trip to Rockmart coming up on Saturday, the first steps are to pick up some needed wins heading into the last week of the regular season in road trips to Gordon and Carroll counties, and then a homestand against the last-place Raiders (who haven’t won a region game yet.)

Those final four region matchups are the wins Cedartown desperately needs coming up over the next two weeks.

Knocking off Heritage who sits in fourth place would give the Bulldogs a chance going into the coming days, but they need Central (6-0) and Sonoraville (5-1) at 1 and 2 to lose a few and pick up the wins to move up into third or fourth place. These won’t be easy tasks.

Cedartown’s trip to Catoosa in their last meeting with the Generals ended with a 70-46 loss. They took an L against the Phoenix in a 7-pointer (68-61) in their homestand on Feb. 12, then bounced back with a win over rival Rockmart the next day.

Central is dominant with an 18-2 record and remain undefeated in region play, putting a 30-point loss on Cedartown’s record this season last week at home as well.

The biggest win of the year came over Southeast Whitfield 81-53, but they played their last one against Northwest on Tuesday night so there’s no chance to make up a win over the Bruins.

Cedartown has upcoming big games on Jan. 30 at Sonoraville, and then February 2 at Central before finishing the regular season after a short break on Feb. 6 against Southeast Whitfield.