After coming close, the Hughes girls will finally get a chance to play for a state championship.
The No. 2-ranked Panthers (29-2) earned a spot in the Class 5A final by easily defeating No. 8 Bradwell Institute 66-46 on Saturday at the Georgia State Convocation Center. The victory earned coach Xavier Trice’s team its first trip to the state finals.
Hughes will play River Ridge for the state championship on Friday at 5:30 p.m. at the Macon Coliseum.
“It’s been a goal for eight years,” Trice said. “It’s our third final four so we’re happy to get over the hump. It’s great for the community, for the kids, for everybody that puts something into his team.”
Hughes got off to a sluggish start and the game was tied 7-7 midway in the first quarter before the Panthers began to click on offense. They used a pair of late baskets from Jocelyn Faison to take a 15-8 lead to end the first quarter and Karrell Greene opened the second period with a pair of 3-pointers to get Hughes was off and running.
Greene came off the bench to lead the team with 24 points, including four 3-pointers and provided the spark.
“I’m happy for her because she’s been going through a lot,” Trice said. “She came out and gave us a spark we needed off the bench. She stepped up huge when the starters got in foul trouble. That whole second unit was amazing.”
Faison, a University of Georgia commit, had 12 points and did a nice job distributing. Faison isn’t one to overtly look for her shot and is willing to get others involved in the offense.
“She sees things that I don’t see. She’s a coach in the floor,” Trice said. “She doesn’t have to score. She just does whatever you need for us to win
Hughes also got 10 points from Savannah Robinson-Holmes, nine points from Kylar Rae Johnson and eight from Cornelia Ellington.
“We have five or six players that can really play,” Trice said. “So they know it makes their job easier the more they pass to other people.”
Bradwell Institute (26-4) was led by Parri Parham with 20 points.
Girls: River Ridge 91, Milton 64
Hard to believe, but River Ridge coach Jason Taylor said Saturday wasn’t the best first quarter his No. 1-ranked team has played this year, despite having a 26-7 lead over No. 4 Milton.
The Knights (30-1) went on to a 91-64 victory, won for the 27th straight time, and earned a spot back in the state championship game. River Ridge made four 3-pointers and had 18-0 run to put Milton on its heels early.
“Our best first quarter was 36 points earlier this season, so we’ve had good starts,” Taylor said. “It was a real good start, and I was happy because the last couple of games we’ve gotten off to bad starts. I was happy that we started off hot.”
It was the second time River Ridge has beaten Milton this season, the other time a 10-point decision on Dec. 14.
River Ridge placed all five starters in double figures: Finley Parker with 24, Kyla Cantey with 21, Kayla Cleaveland with 20, Makayla Roberson with 12 and Sophia Paul with 11.
Milton (24-7) was led by Londyn Walker with 20, Zana Justice with 14 and Deyva Davis with 11.
“Our girls just shot the ball, they defended,” Taylor said. “(Milton) made a run and we would make a run of our own to counter. That’s what we’ve been doing all season.”
River Ridge led 45-27 at halftime before Milton made a run and cut the lead to 11 points early in the third quarter. But the Knights withstood the pressure and put the game away with a big fourth quarter.
“Credit Milton. Their zone slowed us down a little bit and they battled back, so our girls adjusted and got back after it again,” Taylor said. “Probably midway through the third quarter, I felt like we started flowing again. That was what it was. We just needed to get in our flow.”
Boys: Woodward Academy 63, Hughes 58
Zachary Foster scored 18 and Jonas Hayes Jr. scored 17 to lead No. 2-ranked Woodward Academy to a 63-58 win over No. 9 Hughes in the Class 5A boys semifinal at Georgia State.
The win puts Woodward (27-4) in the state final for the first time since 2020, when the War Eagles won it all. Woodward will play Tri-Cities game for the championship on Friday at 7:30 p.m. at the Macon Coliseum.
“We were locked in from the very beginning, all the way down the bench,” Woodward Academy coach Anthony Thomas said. “We were excited for each other and when it came down the stretch, even though one of our top guys goes down with foul trouble, nobody blinked. That was a big thing for us.”
The game appeared to be finished after Aaron Jackson buried back-to-back 3-pointers to give the War Eagles a 58-47 lead with three minutes remaining. But Hughes, aided by some shaky Woodward free throw shooting, got to with two points of the lead thanks to a 3-pointer and a three-point play from Shamar Madden. The War Eagles responded with 9.9 seconds remaining when Cooper converted a three-point play to quell the comeback.
“We talk about resilience,” Thomas said. “We’ve played some opponents. Look at our schedule, right? We’ve been put in that position several times, so I give credit to that and to us for just continuing to believe and continuing to work.”
Woodward played some heavy hitters from out of state -- that’s where three of their four losses came from. The only in-state loss came from region rival Tri-Cities.
Woodward distanced itself from Hughes with an 11-0 run to close the first half, which gave the War Eagles a 30-20 lead at the break. Hayes -- the son of Georgia State assistant coach Jarvis Hayes and nephew of GSU head coach Jonas Hayes -- had three baskets during the run, including an impressive steal and breakaway dunk, and Payton Waites finished it with a 3-pointer.
“That was huge,” Thomas said. “We’ve talked about pushing tempo. We were able to get some defensive turnovers, get on the glass and get out on transition. That’s what we do.”
Woodward Academy (27-4) also got eight points from Jackson, who picked up the slack when Deke Cooper got in early foul trouble.
Hughes (24-8) got 20 points from Ethan Carter, who fouled out late in the game, and 10 points apiece from Jaron LaMelle and Madden.
Boys: Tri-Cities 75, Lee County 63
Sean Van Dorn scored 27 points and Tre Keith scored 24 as No. 4-ranked Tri-Cities earned its fourth trip to the championship game in seven years with a 75-63 win over No. 10 Lee County on Saturday at Georgia State. The Bulldogs won it all in 2019 and 2022.
The Bulldogs (25-6) led by 15 points minutes into the fourth quarter when Lee County (25-6) scored seven unanswered points to start a 12-2 run that cut the margin to four points with 4:30 remaining. Tri-Cities steadied itself and iced the game when Keith dropped a 3-pointer with 1:28 to re-establish a nine-point lead.
“We’ve been tested in critical games this year and played some of the best competition, not just in Georgia but in the country,” Tri-Cities coach Omari Forts said. “We were prepared for the moment.”
Lee County was led by big Matthew Hardwick with 20 points, Braden Moore with 18 points – seven of them during the Trojans’ comeback effort – and Kameron Sanders with 15.
Tri-Cities also got eight points from Jalan Wingfield, one of two Bulldogs to foul out in the fourth quarter.
Forts got the sort of physical game he expected.
“We knew the winner was going to be the team that dominated the glass,” he said. “(Lee County) is a very tough, physical team. We had to win the fight before we could win the basketball game – the fight to control the paint, the fight for loose balls.”
Although he scored just five points, Forts gave a huge compliment to sophomore Khalid Jones.
“He’s 125 pounds soaking wet but he was on the glass, getting loose balls,” Forts said. “I’m so very proud of him. He stands out in my mind as a guy who I coach very hard and I’m very proud of him.”
Credit: Stan Awtrey
Credit: Stan Awtrey
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