In quest for first title, undefeated St. Pius to take on Pace Academy in final

The Knights entered the fourth quarter trailing 43-32 before junior forward Gavin Fountain took over.

Fountain drained three 3-pointers in the final period, and Pace outscored Cambridge 28-12 in the last eight minutes. Fountain’s first two 3-pointers were the bookends of a 9-0 run that tied the game for the first time since the second quarter.

“When we finally caught them, I felt like that was our chance to really go ahead and forge ahead,” Pace coach Sharman White said. “Even though they did go ahead for a brief moment, it didn’t stop our momentum.”

The Bears and Knights traded blows until the one-minute mark, when Fountain drained his third 3-pointer of the quarter. Fountain’s basket gave his team a 55-53 lead, and Pace never gave it back.

“It felt great,” Fountain said. “My chest was hurting, and I couldn’t breathe with all the screaming and stuff, but it was great.”

Fountain finished with 23 points and eight rebounds, shooting 4-of-5 from the free-throw line.

It was the third fourth-quarter comeback of Pace’s playoff run. The Knights also erased late deficits in wins over No. 9 Eastside and Southwest DeKalb.

“The last three games, we have been in positions where we should probably be at home right now,” White said. “But kids, they believe, and they don’t believe in quit.”

White said he had a simple message for the Knights as they entered the fourth quarter.

“The whole message was, ‘We’ve been here before,’” White said. “All we’ve got to do is just get close. We knew if we got close, things would start getting tight, and the momentum was going to swing in our direction.”

The Knights’ last lead before the late comeback was in the first half. Jaydon Avery and Brian Clark keyed a 15-11 advantage by the end of the first quarter before Cambridge took the lead back with an 8-0 scoring run.

Pace trailed 28-24 at halftime before being outscored by seven points in the third quarter.

Cambridge was the only unranked team in the Class 4A final four. It was a historic run for the Bears, who had never advanced past the second round of the playoffs before this season.

“I just told (the team) pain can be a good thing. We didn’t want to necessarily lose, but you can use this pain for good,” Cambridge coach David Akin said. “I want to hold on to this pain as long as possible, but when we come to grips, what a heck of a ride.”

Pace will play for its first state championship since 2023.

Pius led to semifinals win behind senior’s 33 points

Four-star senior guard Harris Reynolds kept Pius’ undefeated season alive with 33 points. The Clemson commitment also pulled down eight rebounds and produced a short highlight tape worth of blocked shots.

The 33-point night followed Reynolds’ 38-point outing that led Pius past No. 2 North Oconee 72-64 on Wednesday.

Pius took a four-point lead by the end of the first quarter and asserted dominance in the second. The Golden Lions outscored the Cardinals 18-8 in the second quarter and entered the locker room with a 41-27 advantage.

“I feel like we won it in the second quarter,” Reynolds said. “We were so playing so hard, and they started hanging their heads.”

Reynolds, Westin Keppen and Max Etienne all cashed 3-pointers in the second quarter, and the Golden Lions defense appeared to adjust to Jonesboro’s transition offense. The same Cardinal attack that seemingly scored at will in the paint in the first quarter struggled to find footholds, with Reynolds blocking several shots into the stands.

“We ‘out-toughnessed’ them,” Etienne said. “We also get up in the press, so it makes them have to make a lot of plays fast and just speed them up. Our goal was to speed them up the whole game.”

Pius also shot 11 of 13 from the free-throw line in the first half. Jonesboro was just 2-of-2.

The Golden Lions kept shooting in the third quarter. The sizable St. Pius crowd erupted when Keppen found a wide-open Zach Yimtatu in the corner, who drained a buzzer-beating 3-pointer for a 63-43 lead.

The Golden Lions sealed the win at the free-throw line.

“(It feels) surreal, but also with these guys down here, nothing with them surprises me,” Pius coach Will Cloyd said. “They are that talented, they are that focused, they do everything I ask them to do, and they do it at a high level.”