What went right for Southwest through three quarters stopped in the fourth, and B.E.S.T Academy disappointed thousands by taking state title
By Michael A. Lough
The Sports Report
centralgasports@gmail.com
The stage was new for both teams, and the seats – pretty much all of them - surrounding that stage were filled, a situation neither had experienced, only dreamed of.
Southwest had a full Coliseum rocking for most of the game, the “Southwest, fired up, Southwest, heyyyy!” verbal explosions rattling ear drums several times throughout 32 minutes.
Not rattled? B.E.S.T. Academy.
The Eagles hardly flinched when the deficit grew to 11 in the final 85 seconds of the third quarter, and outscored Southwest 25-11 in the fourth quarter en route to a 62-56 win Saturday over Southwest before about 8,000 at the Coliseum for the GHSA Class A/Division I state title.
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The fire marshal stopped letting folks in at some point in the first half. The Eagles stopped the Patriots from doing their thing shortly after that, especially in the fourth quarter.
“The two things that I kept preaching in the second half came back to bite us,” Southwest head coach Monquencio Hardnett said. “Get a stop. Get the first rebound. ‘You get the first rebound, you’ll be champion.’
“For some odd reason, we couldn’t get that first rebound.”
BEST outrebounded Southwest 43-31, and 20-13 on the offensive glass, despite its five starters playing all but nine minutes.
“Later in the game, I think we kind of got tired a little bit, had a couple guys in some situations there not used to being in,” Hardnett said. “Early in that third quarter, for some reason, balls kept rolling around and coming off the rim, and we weren’t coming up with it.
“We’ve got to be able to scramble and get the ball.”
The trio of Jacob Mickell, Nicholas Dozier, and Joshua Mickell scored 15, 14, and 16 for the Eagles, coming up with 8, 5, and 6 in the fourth quarter for 19 of B.E.S.T.
Jacob Mickell, Dozier, and Alexander Barrett each had nine rebounds.
The Mickells were aggressive in driving the lane most of the game, either scoring from the floor, going to the line, or dishing. They were credited, and perhaps shortchanged, with only five assists.
Dozier hit a 3-pointer to pull BEST within 49-46 with 5:12 left, and it was a four-point margin with 2:56 left.
“We told our guys, we’ve just got to finish,” BEST head coach Brian Weeden told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “We were missing layups around the basket. We were giving up too many second-chance opportunities. We just had to rebound every shot that went up.”
BEST turned it over after an offensive rebound, but Southwest gave it right back, and Zion Evans’ layup pulled BEST within 56-52 with 2:16 left.
Not many places to sit.
Photo: Michael A. Lough/Central Georgia Sports Report
Joshua Mickell made Southwest pay for a turnover with two game-tying free throws at the 2:03 mark.
Southwest continued to struggle with continuity, another turnover turning into Eagles points and the lead with 1:05 left.
Alexander blocked his third – again perhaps shortchanged – shot and got the rebound, converting one of two at the 44-second mark.
Dozier blocked a shot and Joshua Mickell sealed it five seconds later with a layup, and the clock ran out on the dream of the Patriots and thousands of their closest friends.
The Patriots went scoreless the final 2:56, with three turnovers and three one-and-done trips, and without a bucket from the floor for the final 3:14.
They let slip a chance for a knockout punch early in the fourth, taking a 49-38 lead on Brandon Ashley’s jumper at the 7:26 mark.
BEST outscored Southwest 10-4 over the next three minutes to make it a one-possession game, and the Eagles kept their composure while the Patriots were a little rattled.
Hardnett took the blame for the loss, but the Patriots had trouble at the free-throw line, hitting only 4 of 11, and made three more 3-pointers on five more tries, but had only seven assists on 23 makes to 12 on 23 for BEST.
Southwest led for 21:32, compared to 8:08 for BEST.
The teams were even throughout the first half, each taking the lead a few times to counter the ties. Southwest sent its fans into a frenzy when CJ Howard completed a shaky possession with a net-snapping deep 3-point quasi-heave at the buzzer to give the Patriots a 28-24 halftime lead.
Howard finished with a monster 31 points on 12 of 17 shooting, 5 of 8 from 3-point range, the key word being range on an afternoon where he was more often a step or two beyond the line. He accounted for 55.6 percent of the made 3s for the game.
Chase Dupree finished with 10 points, Rinaldo Callaway snagging a team-high eight rebounds.
But the Patriots couldn’t keep the perimeter shooting going, connecting 45.5 percent of the time in the fourth quarter to 57.1 percent for BEST.
“I just think we got kind of tight as we got down to the end,” said Hardnett, a state runner-up in his fourth season as a head coach. “Early on in the third quarter, they were either getting a layup or free throws. That’s the only way they were scoring.
“Defense was fine, but when they missed, we weren’t getting the rebound. Then we went to sleep a couple times. We hadn’t gave up a three all game, and we gave up two threes.”
BEST handled the massive crowd better than anybody could have expected.
“We’ve been traveling up the road to the state line, Fannin County, Rabun County,” Weeden told the AJC. “It’s just been us. We haven’t had a large fan base, so tonight Southwest was the hometown favorite, but this was nothing new to us.”
Southwest finished an epic season 27-3, with Ashley, Kyle Jefferson, and Ty’Shaun Brantley listed as the lone seniors. Hardnett will have exit meetings in the coming days to plot a course for next year while reminding the Patriots what they accomplished this year.
“Like I said, that was the last game of the season so they won't be able to bounce back this year,” Hardnett said. “But they'll bounce back in life. They'll be able to do that because that's what I prepared them for, as well.
“It’s way bigger than this basketball thing. We got to jump back in the books, get back in class, make sure we regroup, make sure we get them 3.9s and 4.0s, and things like that get them rolling again.
“We’ll be ready for next year.”