By Michael A. Lough

The Sports Report

centralgasports@gmail.com
 

          Clarke Central’s first trip to the Final Four in school history was off to a pretty decent start.

          The Gladiators, despite a slump of six straight possessions with nothing, were down only three after a quarter. Warner Robins, a veteran of going deep in the postseason? Unofficially shot 5 of 21 in the first quarter from the floor.

          So it appeared the last GHSA Class 5A semifinal would be fairly similar to the first one, a grinder of a game in which the veteran playoff team would eventually ease away.

          Reality was different than the potential.

          Sparked by senior Nelson Phillips, Warner Robins took control in the second quarter, stormed  through the third quarter, and muddled through parts of the fourth quarter in a 77-57 win over Clarke Central Saturday.

          Nelson Phillips scored 14 of his 32 in the control-taking second quarter, and the Demons were otherwise balanced with at least four players scoring in each quarter. Travon Williams added 13 points and Jaydon Norman 12.

          “They did exactly what we thought they would,” Warner Robins head coach Jamaal Garman said. “We kind of switched up the lineup a little bit, put Jam’l (Dillard) out there instead of M.J. (King) to bang with their big boy, and it paid off for us.”

          Everything paid off in the second half of the second quarter and entire third quarter as the Demons’ lead grew to 21 with a 7-0 explosion in a 30-second span.

          Not long after Warner Robins watched their head coach exhort the team and fan base, the Demons watched the Gladiators deliver an attention-getting rally.

          “The fourth quarter, I guess they started to relax,” Garman said. “They saw the score and they started to relax, and (Clarke Central) started getting shots up, started making the 3-ball, so that made it a little bit closer.”

          A 19-point margin entering the fourth quarter lost five points inside the first minute, leading to a timeout.

          “Just calm down,” Garman said of the discussion in fourth-quarter timeouts. “Calm down. Stop trying to do too much. Just line up and play ‘em man to man.”

          It took awhile for that to happen, thanks to some 3s and a 3-point play, and the deficit was only 9 with 3:31 to go.

          Soon enough, the Demons refocused and no longer simply traded baskets with the Gladiators. The single-digit margin returned to double digits for good on Phillips’ reverse right-handed layup that was followed by Williams’ latest 3-pointer.

         Warner Robins from then on ended the game on a 11-3 run.

          Other than parts of the first and fourth quarters, the Demons played very much like a championship team, showing balance and unselfishness on offense and tenacity on the glass and defense.

          “We played well,” Garman said. “Very well, especially on the defensive end. To hold those guys to as many 3-point attempts as we held them to, very good. Because they were a big 3-point shooting team.”

          The Demons were all hands and feet on defense, the Gladiators suffering 11 first-half turnovers that they basically cut in half in the final two quarters, turnovers and despite working hard, getting a little outhustled.

          “That’s the main thing,” Garman said. “We know when there’s a 50-50 ball, it needs to turn into a 100 percent Warner Robins ball. That’s the effort that we gave tonight and it paid off for us.”