Zach Bell – Grovetown

    Creekside – Caleb McCoy 4 0-0 12, Nas Brown 6 7-8 21, Ryan Taylor 1 0-0 2, Jaylen Priester 5 0-0 13, Chris Reddick 2 0-0 5, Titus Anderson 4 2-4 11, Graham Niles 1 0-0 2, Shaqir O’Neal 5 0-0 12. Totals: 28 9-12 78.

    Grovetown – Malik Ferguson 3 0-0 6, Jaye Gant 1 2-4 4, Julius Brown 9 0-0 23, Zach Bell 12 4-4 32, Jaden Cobb 1 0-0 2, Markel Freeman 3 2-4 8, Jose Rodriguez 1 0-0 2. Totals: 30 8-12 76.

Three-point goals – Creekside: 13 (McCoy 4, Brown 2, Priester 3, Reddick, Anderson, O’Neal 2). Grovetown: 9 (Brown 5, Bell 4). 

Creekside Christian scored 4 points in the final 10.5 seconds to top our Grovetown Warriors 78-76 in a Big South Shootout game Friday at Sandy Creek High School. Nas Brown, who led Creekside with 21 points, nailed 2 free throws with 10.5 seconds remaining to tie the game at 76. Then when Grovetown attempted to push the ball up the right sideline, Jaylen Priester, who scored 13 points, stole a pass and fed Shaqir O’Neal, who scored 12, for a game winning layup right before the final buzzer.

Nas Brown (2), Jaylen Priester (4) and Shaqir O’Neal (24)

Grovetown’s 76-74 lead came when Julius Brown, who scored 23 points, including 19 in the second half, made his fourth three pointer with 1:30 remaining to give the Warriors their first lead since the opening minute of the second quarter. Brown and Zach Bell, who led all scorers with 32 points, combined to bury 7 three pointers in the second half, helping Grovetown to keep pace with a red hot Creekside team.

Grovetown head coach Darren Douglas acknowledged the hot shooting by Creekside Christian, a powerhouse of the Georgia Independent School Association (GISA), in his post game comments, sent by text message as he and the team traveled back to the Augusta area before returning for Saturday’s game at Kell High School against nationally ranked Pebblebrook.

“I was impressed with how their shots were falling. They got after it on both sides of the ball,” said Douglas. “We have to beat these types of teams to take our next step in our progression as a team.”

Douglas conceded my point about Bell and Brown’s impressive scoring display. The pair of senior guards combined to score 34 of their team’s 48 second half points on 7 made threes during that stretch. But Douglas focused more on his team’s inability to disrupt Creekside’s offensive onslaught. Creekside scored 46 points after halftime and made 13 three pointers during the game.

“I thought they (Bell and Brown) shot it well down the stretch, but we took too long to play our style of basketball and it cost us,” Douglas explained. “The game honors toughness and we were not the tougher team today. When you have dead ball turnovers and miss some of the shots we missed, you deserve to lose this type of game. Hopefully we learn from it.”

Creekside first took control of the game in the second quarter when Caleb McCoy, who scored 12 points on 4 made three pointers, splashed in a three from the left corner to give Creekside a 16-15 advantage. McCoy was also responsible for giving his team its largest advantage of the game when he bombed one in to give Creekside a 65-55 lead with 6:11 remaining in the fourth quarter.

Although it took until the final 90 seconds for Grovetown to regain the lead it lost early in the second quarter, Bell and Brown helped Grovetown storm back every time the deficit stretched beyond a couple baskets. Bell scored 11 of Grovetown’s 13 points in the second quarter during a time when Creekside threatened to pull away. Creekside’s advantage grew to 32-24 with less than 3:00 remaining before Bell ended the half with 4 unanswered points to send the Warriors into the locker room down 4.

And after Grovetown fell behind by 10 with 6:00 remaining, Brown scored 6 points in a 90 second span before lobbing a perfect pass to Bell for a thunderous alley oop connection that completed a 12-1 Grovetown run that cut the deficit to 67-66 with 3:00 remaining.

Brown also made 2 three pointers between the 2:27 mark and the 1:30 mark during an 8-0 run for the Warriors that gave Grovetown a 2 point lead, which held until Creekside’s heroics in the final 11 seconds.

From the She Got Game Classic at Wheeler High

Sarah Lewis – Woodward Academy

(Photo Credit: @InsideExposure on Twitter)

    Woodward – Anna Wylder 0 1-2 1, Sara Lewis 8 2-7 23, Mackenzie Moring 2 2-2 6, Savannah Simms 1 0-0 2, Kai Lanier 3 4-6 11, Zoe Scott 5 0-0 10, Kennedie Mosley 3 2-2 8, Sydney Bowles 5 6-7 16, Tyonna Martin 0 1-2 1. Totals: 27 18-28 78.

    Grovetown – Reina Way 1 1-2 3, Jada Porter 6 3-3 16, Aniyah Jones 2 4-7 8, Amaya Brown 1 0-0 2, Kelsy Linen 2 0-0 4, Keona Curtis 6 4-6 18. Totals: 18 12-18 51.

Three-point goals – Woodward: 6 (Lewis 5, Lanier). Grovetown: 3 (Porter, Curtis 2).