Prayer answered: Freeman gets the game-winning bounces to lift Baldwin to the state championship
There was little question what would happen.
Baldwin faced a one-point deficit, which could have been more had the opponent not missed two free throws eight seconds earlier. The Braves moved the ball down and called time out.
“I called it,” head coach Anthony Webb said. “I called ‘double high.’”
The ball was going to Will Freeman.
All of 12.7 seconds remained, Baldwin trailing. But you'd never know it, so calm was Rudy Satcher getting the inbounds and giving it to William Freeman. He did the rest.
Video: Michael A. Lough/The Central Georgia Sports Report
Rudy Satcher took the inbounds pass from Freeman right in front of the team’s bench, dribbled a few seconds and passed to Freeman on the right wing. He didn’t wait long, driving two dribbles to his left and pulling up for a stop-and-pop just inside the right elbow, in plenty of Fayette County traffic.
It bounced off the front right side of the rim. It rose to kiss some glass.
And it slithered through the twine to, after a terrifyingly close heave by Fayette County, give Baldwin a 54-53 win in the GHSA Class 4A state championship game Wednesday night at the Macon Coliseum.
Officials put 3.8 seconds on the clock, plenty of time to get a decent shot off. Fayette County got the ball in with little trouble, and got it to Kaleb Banks near halfcourt. His off-balance heave, after maybe an extra step, was terrifyingly - for Baldwin - on target, and whether it would have counted ... Never mind. The celebration was on.
“I said, ‘Will, you come off, go through, make the shot. I’m gonna put it in your hands,’” Webb said. “I said, ‘Hey, we’re gonna ride with you.’”
Fine with Freeman.
“I come off the screen, and it would depend on what they were going to do off it,” Freeman explained. “Nobody was in (helping), so I stepped in, knocked it down, won the game.”
Baldwin's William Freeman wasn't much thinking about what Fayette County would do on defense, nor much about passing.
Video: Michael A. Lough/The Central Georgia Sports Report
Freeman finished with 12 points, sharing team scoring honors with Satcher, Lataeveon Roach coming up huge off the bench with 11 points. Terry Brown had 14 points and Tariq Mumphery 11 for Fayette County.
It is Baldwin’s first state championship since 1981, and completes a perfect 17-0 season.
Photo: Michael A. Lough/The Central Georgia Sports Report
The Braves survived despite taking 17 more shots than the Tigers and making five more. Fayette County outshot Baldwin from three, 46.2 percent to 31.6 and at the line, 61.9 percent to 57.1, but the Braves only took seven freebies, a third of the Tigers’ total.
Baldwin had the edge in blocks by two and steals by three, and both were about 2-1 turnovers-to-assists.
As expected, shorter Baldwin was outrebounded, but only by four, and it had three more offensive rebounds.
“I told ‘em they’re long, everybody’s gotta box out,” Webb said. “When those shot go up, everybody’s gotta get on the defensive glass.”
Baldwin outrebounded Fayette County 7-5 in the fourth quarter.
The Tigers were without standout Kaleb Banks for most of the first half. The lanky junior, who had more than 30 points in each of the Tigers’ first two playoff games, went out at the 5:52 mark of the first quarter with a cut above his right eye. He got eight stitches, but was scoreless at halftime.
Still, the Tigers were down only 28-25 at halftime.
“I feel sorry for Kaleb,” Webb said. “I don’t know. Probably would have been a different game if he had been there the whole time. But you know, you never can tell.
“Kudos to those guys as teammates. They kept them in the game while he was out. He came out there, he picked up where they left off.”
Here’s how close Fayette County’s last shot came.
Photo: Michael A. Lough/The Central Georgia Sports Report
The lead was five four times in the third quarter, but the Braves couldn’t extend the lead as the teams mostly traded baskets. That changed early in the fourth quarter when Fayette County scored on three straight trips following Baldwin turnovers, and nailed consecutive threes for a 47-43 lead – its first since 17-15 in the second quarter – and a Braves timeout with 6:36 left.
“I told ‘em, ‘Ya gotta buy me another suit.’”
Photo: Michael A. Lough/The Central Georgia Sports Report
“The flood gates could open after that,” Webb said. “ ‘OK, we need to get a good shot.’ I don’t know if we made the shot or not, but we were able to keep them from going down and making another shot.”
Jacobi Nixon missed a decent 14-footer, and then Baldwin survived two Fayette County shots – a Banks miss on a jumper and on a post shot – and missed another shot. The ball stayed with Baldwin, and Satcher nailed a three to pull within 47-46 with 5:49 left.
The Tigers went up 50-46 with 3:42 left, and the margin was three a minute later.
Another miss went out of bounds off Fayette County, and again the Braves scored, on Jahzi Norman’s jump. Banks made one of two, and the lead was 53-52 with 1:45 left.
The teams exchanged empty possessions the rest of the way, Fayette County missing a pair of free throws with 21.3 seconds left.
Webb gambled a little bit with a timeout, giving the Tigers a chance to regroup.
It didn’t matter. Freeman went into some traffic, pulled up, and got a Baldwin bounce. The shot went through, and officials put 3.8 seconds on the clock during the timeout.
Terry Brown got the short inbounds, got it downcourt to Banks at halfcourt. He took a dribble and a couple steps and had an open but off-balance look.
The official nearest the signaled “good if it goes”.
The shot, with Freeman flying by Banks, was on target but a hair long and bounced far off the back iron, and the celebration was on.
A tired Will Freeman sits with the Class AAAA state championship trophy, while Lataeveon Roach (4), who was huge off the bench with 11 points in 17 minutes, recovers, too.
Photo: Michael A. Lough/The Central Georgia Sports Report
“It was always motivation,” Freeman said of the Braves being overlooked and coming up short. “Every year, we always come in here and watch the other people play.
“We always dreamed it was gonna be our turn.”
Photo: Michael A. Lough/The Central Georgia Sports Report