GHSA region tournaments: Southwest advances to Region 2 final, Central girls lose in surprising blowout

After a second-half momentum turn, the No. 1-seeded Southwest Patriots used strong defense and improved shooting to finally pull away and defeat the No. 3-seeded East Laurens Falcons in the semifinals of the GHSA Region 2-A Division I tournament Friday night in Dublin.

It was a team effort for the Patriots, who bounced back from poor shooting in the first half to have an all-around team effort punctuated by some impressive drives to the rim by Chase Dupree and Rinaldo Callaway.

It was an impressive show of resolve, especially considering the Falcons more or less had home field advantage with the game at Dublin despite Southwest being the “home team” based on seeding.

“It was everybody tonight, a real team effort,” Southwest head coach Monquencio Hardnett said. “I started coaching most of these guys as freshmen, and they’re juniors now. They understand the environment they’re coming into. We adjusted and they made it happen.”

It was a gritty game early for both teams with plenty of fouls, jump balls and turnovers. Southwest did East Laurens some favors with a few fouls on shots from beyond the arc. But, even with the Patriots shooting poorly, the Falcons took a slim 27-24 lead into the locker room at halftime.

Southwest slowly turned the tide in the third period. 

“The shots just started falling, really,” Hardnett said. “We played a lot closer on defense and once our shots started falling the feel of the game changed.”

The peak of the momentum shift arrived at the end of the quarter when Brandon Ashley drilled a halfcourt shot at the buzzer to tie the game at 39-39 going into the final quarter, not to mention bring his teammates exploding off the bench.

Callaway cemented the swing on the first possession of the fourth, slamming home a one-handed dunk on a picture-perfect pass from Dupree that got the crowd even more amped up.

From there Southwest took control, keeping East Laurens on the perimeter on defense while sinking more shots on offense and driving to the rim regularly.

“I’m proud of them. Now we just enjoy this win for tonight and see who wins the last boys game and we come back tomorrow and try to finish,” Hardnett said.

Dupree led the team and the floor with 18 points. Brandon Ashley followed with 15, while Caron Howard added 13.

The Patriots will play No. 1 Dublin at 8:30 p.m. Saturday night.

The only other Bibb County boys team still in it is the Westside boys at the 2A level in Region 2. The Seminoles won against the Callaway Cavaliers in the semifinals Thursday, eking out a 51-49 win at Morgan County to advance to the championship game. The Seminoles will play No. 1 Morgan County at 6:15 p.m. Saturday night.

Central girls fall in shocking blowout, Westside girls lose on last-second shot

The No. 1 Central Chargers fell behind in stunning fashion early and could never fully recover, losing 66-52 against the East Laurens Falcons in the semifinals of the Region 2-A Division I tournament Friday night in Dublin.

The Falcons, led by twins Mckayela and Brenda Tanner, were quick on the draw and started the game with an impressive 18-0 run. They never looked back, as Mckayela scored 33 of the Falcons’ 66 points with sharp drives to the hoop and slick passing from her teammates.

Even more impressive than East Laurens’ offense was their stifling defense. The Falcons picked Central’s pockets time and time again and intercepted passes seemingly at will, forcing turnovers regularly to extend the lead on fast breaks.

“We just didn’t show up to play tonight,” Chargers head coach Tamara Bolston-Williams said. “We couldn’t get anything to fall, but it goes back to simple basketball. We couldn’t hit layups. We started off in such a deep deficit, then we didn’t fight back.”

As if East Laurens’ lethal quickness was not enough, Central seemed discombobulated all night in terms of mental mistakes as well. Team leader and steady scorer Jazlyn Johnson missed four straight layups in point-blank range at one point, shaking her head. The typically sharp-shooting JiKaylee Marshall airmailed a pair of 3-pointers.

At multiple points during substitutions the Chargers got confused, had too many players on the floor and had to scramble to avoid technical fouls. It simply was not their night.

There were two brief stretches where Central performed well. After going down 18-2, the Chargers actually went on a run of their own and trimmed the deficit to 20-12 at the end of the opening period, but things fell apart in the second quarter.

Then Central made a small run at a comeback in the final quarter, cutting a 20-point lead down to as close as 11 before losing their grip again.

“Just getting them to fight and not lay down, that’s the positive that you can always take from a game where you’re behind. You just teach them that no matter what the outcome is, you keep working,” Bolston-Williams said. “If you can’t pull this one out, you just work on stuff for the next game.”

The Chargers do get another game, though their playoff seeding in the GHSA state bracket will be significantly lower with the semifinal loss in the region tournament. It will be their first season without an appearance in the region championship game since the 2020-21 campaign.

“But it’s like the saying I always tell them: ‘We live to fight another day,’” Bolston-Williams said. “We still have a chance because we’re in the state championship bracket. We can make anything happen there.”

Other updates

In Region 2-2A, the Westside girls lost to Callaway 35-33 in heartbreaking fashion Thursday night at Morgan County. 

While the Seminoles traded the lead multiple times across a defensive, hard-fought semifinal, it looked like they would come away with a win when they had the ball and a one-point lead with less than 20 seconds remaining.

But Westside turned it over with just a few seconds remaining, and the Cavaliers capitalized. After some long passes to move across halfcourt, Tra’niya Mitchell drove into the lane and somehow maneuvered past two Seminole defenders to knock in a layup and draw a foul.

The clutch play and ensuing free throw gave Callaway the two-point lead, one they would not relinquish as Westside failed to hit the desperation shot in the final four seconds.

The Howard girls encountered a matchup with their longtime region rival yet again Thursday, falling to Baldwin 59-23 in the Region 4-3A tournament semifinals at Baldwin.

The Huskies can’t seem to escape the Braves, who followed Howard to a new region this year even as the Huskies changed classifications and moved to a region with several Augusta schools.

Howard lost its consolation game Friday in a double overtime thriller against Richmond Academy, 46-42.