Archive for the ‘Basketball’ Category

Ninth-ranked Hillgrove rallied from a nine-point deficit late in the third quarter and earned its first trip to the state championship game with a 56-51 victory against North Gwinnett in the Class AAAAA girls basketball semifinals at Gwinnett Arena on Thursday.

The victory sets up an all-Powder Springs final at 7 p.m. Friday in Gwinnett. The Hawks will meet top-ranked McEachern, their Region 4-AAAAA rival located just three miles away in west Cobb County.

“It means so much for those seniors,” said Hillgrove coach Sheryl Fowler, who left McEachern to start the program at Hillgrove six years ago. “It’s a great group with those eight kids, and for me that’s what I’m most proud of, for them to have this experience.”

Hillgrove (26-4) outscored North Gwinnett 31-17 in the game’s final 10 minutes to rally from a 34-25 deficit.

North Gwinnett (26-4) had a considerable height advantage, but Hillgrove found success by taking the ball right at the Bulldogs, particularly in the fourth …

Continue reading AAAAA girls semifinals: Hillgrove 56, North Gwinnett 51 »

Macon – Buford put the game on ice and multiple starters in ice packs early in a fast start coach Gene Durden called a blessing.

The Lady Wolves (25-7) opened the game with a 20-1 run and was never threatened, earning a chance at its fourth straight state championship.

“Everybody played really well offensively and defensively,” said Durden, whose club will face Lovett in Saturday’s final. “To get out fast really was a blessing.”

Kaela Davis scored 13, MacKenzie Darrah 11 and Kristina Nelson 10 to lead a group of 11 players who scored for Buford.

A Brooks County team that had held its own against schools from Regions 1-AAAA and 1-AAAAA, managed just three points in the first quarter.

The Lady Wolves, who earned their title shot against a Lovett team they’ve beaten twice, led 47-11 at halftime and took their biggest lead with a 10-0 run to start the second half, giving Durden a chance to rest his ailing starters and get some big-venue experience for his younger players.

Continue reading AA girls: Buford 70, Brooks County 37 »

No team from South Georgia has won Georgia’s highest classification of boys basketball since 1998. It’s been at least that long since a team won without a major college prospect.

Savannah, a school of only 750 students that could be playing in Class AAA, took the alternate route to the AAAAA boys final Thursday with a 51-46 victory over Alpharetta at the Gwinnett Arena.

Russell Famble and freshman Jermaine Williams were Savannah’s leading scorers with 11 points apiece. Also telling of this team’s style were the 12 steals – with nine players getting at least one.

“We don’t have any McDonald’s All-Americans,’’ said Savannah head coach Tim Jordan. “We’ve got guys who like to eat at McDonald’s. But we don’t have the major-college guys. We win with the home-grown talent. We play hard, and we play well together.’’

Savannah (30-2) is the first south Georgia team in the AAAAA final since Beach in 2007. Savannah’s 1998 team, the most recent of 12 Blue Jacket state championships, was …

Continue reading AAAAA boys: Savannah 51, Alpharetta 46 »

Eagle’s Landing to the return trip to the state semifinals and a chance at  revenge for their loss to two-time champion Columbia in the AAA final four last year.

That challenge is both more difficult and secondary to other concerns, though. The Golen Eagles (28-3) lost star guard Eric Wortham, who suffered a seizure at school last week and missed the team’s win over Crisp County. Eagle’s Landing coach Clay Crump confirmed that Wortham won’t play, but seemed relieved that his star player’s appears headed in the right direction.

“They don’t know the cause yet,” Crump said in a text message. “He did 30 minutes on a treadmill [Wednesday]. His recovery is going well.”

Eagle’s Landing (28-3) played Columbia close in December (a 43-37 Columbia win).

Meanwhile, the assumption for most of the season has been that everybody was playing for second place behind Columbia (29-1) which is seeking its third straight state title. In guard Tahj Shamsid-Deen (who averages 12.7 points and 9.6 …

Continue reading AAA basketball: Tough week for Eagle’s Landing »

Macon – The number-crunchers couldn’t come to a consensus in the Class AA state semifinal Thursday.

The official scorebook had Lovett’s Tatianna Jackson with 26 points. The Lovett bench had her with 30. Media outlets had her with 28.

Suffice to say Jackson scored a lot, and Laney had little in the way of an answer.

Jackson had a big first half and the Lady Lions (27-5) held Laney without a field goal for a stretch of more than eight minutes in the second half on the way to a 56-41 win, earning a spot in Saturday’s final.

“It really doesn’t matter if I have a big game,” said Jackson, who was credited with 17 points in the first half and also had 10 rebounds, four steals and two assists, “but my teammates kept finding me on the back-door cuts.”

For the second straight game, Lovett eliminated a team on a 25-plus game winning streak. In the third round, the Lady Lions took down Model, which had won 25 straight. Laney (29-2) entered Thursday’s semifinal on a 26-game run, and their …

Continue reading AA girls: Lovett 56, Laney 41 »

Shaquille Cook scored 22 points and Laney (27-4) outscored Jordan 13-5 over the final seven minutes in a Class AA boys semifinal Thursday.

The Wildcats, making their third straight appearance in the state semifinals, jumped out to an early lead and carried a 27-19 advantage into halftime.

They led by as many as 12 on two different occasions in the third period before Jordan’s Marcus Powell got untracked, scoring three baskets in a 10-0 run to close the quarter, trimming the Laney lead to 39-37.

Jordan (27-4) tied the score on Zay Smith’s bucket in the opening minute of the fourth quarter.

Laney’s Glenn Rodriguez, who had not scored at that point, made three straight baskets, giving the Wildcats the lead for good.

Jammie West scored 13 points for the Wildcats.

Powell finished with 14 and Smith 10 for Jordan.

Continue reading AA boys: Laney 52, Jordan 44 »

Top-ranked McEachern has been jumping out to big early leads all season, but rarely has it had to hold on down the stretch like it did against Norcross on Friday.

The Indians took a 9-0 lead in the first 1:31 of the game, then survived a frantic fourth quarter to beat the Blue Devils 64-61 in the Class AAAAA girls basketball semifinals at Gwinnett Arena, ending Norcross’ bid for a third consecutive state title.

The victory puts McEachern (32-0) in the state championship game for the second consecutive season and avenged a 61-36 loss to Norcross in last year’s final. The Indians will play for their first state title at 7 p.m. Friday at Gwinnett.

“I think I was more nervous than the girls were,” McEachern coach Phyllis Arthur said. “I was nervous because I knew they were going to give us a close game. But I didn’t care if it came down to the wire, as long as we won by one it didn’t matter.”

It was just the sixth time this season that McEachern won by fewer than 10 points. The …

Continue reading AAAAA girls semifinals: McEachern 64, Norcross 61 »

Shaq Goodwin, one of the state’s biggest basketball stars, is the AJC’s 2012 Slam Dunk champion.

The 6-foot-8, 245-pound senior is from Southwest DeKalb High School, which will play for the Class AAAA state championship at 4:45 p.m. Friday. Goodwin has signed a basketball scholarship with Memphis.

“I feel good about; It’s about time I won, I lost last year drastically,” Goodwin said with a laugh, referring his participation in the 2011 contest.

“It’s a great honor for Shaq, I’m excited for him, and it couldn’t happen to a more deserving person,” Southwest DeKalb coach Dewayne McKinney said. “He has been getting a lot of awards and accolades, and he’s worthy because he’s such a great kid.”

How did Goodwin win a dunk contest that usually dominated by smaller and more agile players? “He’s super athletic,” McKinney said. “Most big guys don’t have a great footwork. He has great footwork and he has displayed some of those dunks [from the contest] in our games.”

Goodwin is ranked as …

Continue reading Shaq Goodwin is AJC’s 2012 Slam Dunk champion »

A look at the Class AA girls semifinals

Laney vs. Lovett, 4 p.m.

No. 2 Laney has run roughshod over its opposition most of the season with its up-tempo pressing style of play. The Wildcats (29-1) have won 26 straight since losing to Class AAA No. 1 Washington County. After winning its first two state playoff games by a combined 78 points, Laney needed overtime to turn back No. 4 Morgan County in the quarterfinals.

Laney has many weapons at its disposal, with plenty of girls capable of scoring points. The inside presence of Khadijah Cave and outside shooting of Jermeka Gibson are the envy of any team. Others take advantage of the game’s situation, as Katice Williams did against Morgan, when she scored all 15 of her points in the second half.

No. 6 Lovett will be making its first appearance in the Final Four. The Lions have been obscured by Buford in its own region, but proved itself last week by knocking off No. 1 Model.

Lovett (26-5) has been led in the playoffs by forward …

Continue reading AA basketball: Preview of girls semifinals »

A look at the Class AA boys semifinals

 Jordan vs. Laney, 5:30 p.m.

No. 3 Laney beat No. 9 Morgan County to reach the Final Four. The Wildcats (26-4) are in the semifinals for the third straight season and have the sort of quickness and depth that makes them a threat.

Laney has a lot of things going for it, starting with the superior inside play of Shaquille Cook and the defense of Jammie West. Glenn Rodriguez was the player who came up with the clutch offense in the quarterfinals, where he scored 10 of his 15 points in the fourth quarter.

No 6 Jordan (27-3) survived for a one-point win over Dawson County in the quarterfinals. The Red Jackets have some size in Brandon Simmons and Marcus Powell, but guards Tony Palmer and Jeff Blanton make things go. It was Blanton who made the winning shot against Dawson County.

Jordan rotates a lot of different players though the lineup. The Red Jackets are also comfortable playing a variety of styles, willing to run when necessary and hold …

Continue reading AA basketball: Preview of boys semifinals »

Shavontae Naylor scored 19 points, Marquita Daniel 13 and Alexis Carter 12 for Southwest Atlanta Christian (29-3), which rolled to a big lead early and forced a shortened fourth quarter under the mercy rule in a Class A girls semifinal.

The Warriors, who won the Class A title in 2006, earned a spot opposite Wesleyan in Saturday’s final. SACA led 24-9 at the end for the first quarter and 39-21 at halftime, then started the third quarter with a 7-0 run to put the game away. They led by as many as 33 points in the fourth quarter.

Courtney Williams scored 13 points for Charlton (24-5), while Ra’Lesha Doyle had 12 and Keturah Rutherford 10.

Continue reading Class A girls: Southwest Atlanta Christian 68, Charlton County 39 »

Kenny Gaines scored 30 points and Jordan Coar and Eric Lockett added 14 each as Whitefield (28-3) pulled away in the second half and earned a spot in the state final.

The Wolfpack led 40-37 at intermission and opened the second half with a 16-3 run to take control.

Emmanuel Ezoua scored 29 points to lead Lanier County (24-5), which got as close as ive points in the final four minutes.

Continue reading Class A boys: Whitefield 75, Lanier County 62 »

The North Hall girls take the floor in Friday’s Class AAA semifinals as one of the more intriguing stories of the high school basketball season. Just over a month ago, they were 16-7, having lost back-to-back games against East Hall and White County, and few outside of Gainesville would have predicted a state semfinal berth for the Lady Trojans.

Yet here they are, riding a season-long eight-game winning streak behind twins Mary Kate and McKenna Rushton, hitting the road to Macon.

Their reward?

A matchup with Washington County, which has a little streak of its own. The defending state champions are 30-0 and have won 62 straight behind junior Allisha Gray. They’re the elephant in Class AAA’s living room. Their 58-46 win over Albany-Monroe in the quarterfinals marked the first time all year they’d had a game decided by fewer than 10 points. Gray scored 32 points, with 17 rebounds and 7 blocked shots in that contest. If North Hall is to keep its dream alive, they’ll have to find …

Continue reading AAA basketball blog: Little streak vs. big streak »

The Class AAAA girls basketball trophy will be returning to DeKalb County after a one-year absence.

Miller Grove guaranteed that with its 42-34 victory over Alcovy on Wednesday at Gwinnett Arena, setting up a championship game showdown against Region 6-AAAA and county rival Southwest DeKalb at 3 p.m. on Friday. Teams from DeKalb have won six of the past eight AAAA girls titles, including three in a row by Southwest DeKalb from 2008-2010.

Miller Grove advanced with a defense that held Alcovy to its season low in points, 24 below its average of 58.

Miller Grove’s Katie Hunt scored Alcovy’s first points of the game when she took the opening tip, drove down the court and scored in the wrong goal. It was just about the easiest basket Alcovy got all night. Miller Grove (24-4) held the Tigers to five field goals, including the one by Hunt, through the first three quarters and 10 overall.

“That’s still not the way we play defense,” Miller Grove coach Renee Breedlove said. “I wasn’t …

Continue reading AAAA girls semifinals: Miller Grove 42, Alcovy 34 »

Kadarius Turner says he could see it coming in the seventh grade when his teammates at Chapel Hill Middle School in Decatur were William “Shaq” Goodwin and Jordan Price, two players who’d become some of Georgia’s top basketball prospects in Georgia.

The three are seniors now, and they’ve helped put fourth-ranked Southwest DeKalb in a boys championship game for the first time.

Southwest (22-9) – which played its first state basketball tournament in 1954, defeated North Clayton 74-67 Wednesday at the Gwinnett Arena.

Price, a 6-foot-4 guard who has signed with Auburn, scored 29 points. Goodwin, a 6-8 post who has signed with Memphis, and Turner, the 5-9 point guard that coach Dwayne McKinney calls the team’s ‘’heart and soul,’’ had 17 apiece.

“I always thought it was possible,’’ said Turner, a four-year starter. “We’ve worked hard for four years, blood, sweat and tears. Now we’ve got to win it.’’

Southwest took the lead for good 13-10 on Price’s 3-pointer midway in the first …

Continue reading AAAA boys SF: Southwest DeKalb 74, North Clayton 67 »