FAYETTE COUNTY BARELY GETS BY MAYS
Malcolm Brogdon’s calling card is doing the little things. And on Thursday night, one little thing turned out to be a season-saving play. The sophomore from Fayette County grabbed an offensive rebound and was fouled with 1.6 seconds left to play on a put back attempt. He calmly stepped up and nailed both free throws to give Fayette County a 64-62 win over Mays.
Brogdon (pictured above) finished with 17 points and seven rebounds in the quarterfinal win in the 5-AAAA tournament. Brogdon’s bucket was the first lead Fayette County had in the entire fourth quarter.
Mays gave a great fight thanks to the play of senior guard Desmond Williams. The 5-8 guard was brilliant all game long from behind the three-point line, hitting seven of eight from deep. However, he missed a wide open chip shot at the rim with 15 seconds left to play. Williams finished with 25 points before fouling out.
His backcourt mate Aloys Cabell was absolutely brilliant, scoring 25 points, too. The 5-11 point guard was the best player on the floor in this game. He controlled the pace throughout the game and played like a seasoned veteran from tip to finish.
Fayette County had 16 points from Southern Cal bound senior Noel Johnson and sophomore guard Adam Smith finished with 15 points.
REST IS WHAT DOCTOR ORDERED FOR LITHIA SPRINGS
Lithia Springs head coach Jason Slate worried about having a 12-day wait in between games prior to his team’s match-up against Tri-Cities on Thursday evening. He was problem even more worried because Tri-Cities beat his team in overtime in January.
And after watching his team score a season-low 20 points in the first half, he was almost sprouting up grey hairs in the locker room.
But a huge three-pointer from junior Trey Bussey with three minutes left to play was a huge bucket and calm free throws down the stretch from senior Alex Dean was enough to give Lithia Springs a 67-65 win over Tri-Cities and a bid to the state tournament.
Having nearly two weeks off gave Bussey the perfect amount of time to rest his injured hip he suffered at the end of the regular season.
“That time was exactly what I needed. It got me to 100 percent,” Bussey said.
Thursday night’s game wasn’t one for those that were at 90 percent either. It was a long, physical and emotionally draining game for all parties involved.
“(The time off) helped us because Trey wouldn’t have been able to play but the other guys looked like they haven’t played in 12 days,” an exhausted Slate said after the game.
Tri-Cities was paced by the 23 points of sophomore Bernard Dozier.
