Southwest uses explosive 3-point shooting in dominant win over Banks County to reach Elite 8

Good things came in threes for No. 1 Southwest in its GHSA A-Division I playoff game Saturday night, as the Patriots rained shots from beyond the arc to nearly double up No. 17 Banks County in a ringing 79-41 second round win at home.

Chase Dupree was red-hot from the field, finishing with 27 points on 9 of 12 shooting, including five 3-pointers. CJ Howard followed with 22 points with six makes from long-range, five of which came in the second half.

“I’ve actually been waiting on them to come, we’ve been prepared for that, all the guards shot 500 everyday in the summertime,” head coach Monquencio Hardnett said after the game. “I hear a lot of times people in the crowd saying ‘stop shooting threes,’ but I prepare them to shoot those kind of shots. That’s the hard work that they put in. Finally that’s coming around, and it’s coming around at the right time.”

No one from the energetic home crowd protested the threes Saturday night, as Southwest drained 16 of its 33 tries from beyond the arc for a 48.5% clip. The fans spent more time making lots of noise, even keeping the enthusiasm once the Patriots had built a 30-point lead into the fourth quarter.

“It’s huge for us. It energizes the kids. It doesn’t bother me either way even though I really love them being here. The kids love to see it, they loving seeing their family and friends,” Hardnett said of the crowd. “I’ve got some kids that have played a lot of games… they’re prepared for these hostile crowds, but luckily we’re at home with a good chance to go to the final four.”

With the home crowd on their side, Southwest came out confident as Ashley pulled up for deep jumpers early on the game’s first few drives. The move could have backfired, but the sharpshooter drained the long shots with ease. Once Dupree did the same, there was no turning back for the Pats as they got out to a 21-9 lead in the first quarter.

“It was really the message, because we knew that’s a great shooting team over there, we know they got some kids that can really fill it up. So we knew we were gonna have to really make some shots in order to be in this game,” Hardnett said. “They locked in, we got some extra shots up in shootaround today and they did exactly what we were supposed to do.”

The Southwest defense held up its end of the bargain as well, keeping a Banks County offense that had scoring potential fairly in check. Kolby Watson found enough success driving to the baseline to put up 25 points for the Leopards, but the rest of the team was cold from the floor.

“(Watson) is a really good player, we wanted to make sure we keyed in on him and limited him,” Hardnett said. “He probably still had 20… but we knew they would probably want to trade twos for threes, so we knew we had to knock down shots.

Watson had little help as Banks County struggled to move the ball around. They defended well inside and at the rim, but it mattered little with the Patriots on fire from deep. Southwest players were closer to the logo than the charity stripe on a few makes.

A few layups and free throws from the Leopards got them back into it and cut the lead to 11, but each time they built momentum another Patriots 3-pointer swished through the net. Even timeouts could not stem the tide, as one Banks County breather immediately gave way to a Southwest steal and score.

That play happened with about two and a half minutes left before halftime when the Patriots had a 16-point lead. Southwest went on a tear in the final stretch before the break, though, eventually taking a 41-19 advantage into the locker room.

Banks County could not recover in the second half, as the Patriots continued to double up the score until the final horn. Now Southwest will eye the other side of the bracket and prep for its Elite Eight game — another home game thanks to their No. 1 seed — to be played Wednesday night.

Even with the explosive offense, Hardnett thought the defense would be the key to the rest of his team’s playoff run.

“It’s gonna be defense and rebounding, that’s what it’s gonna have to be,” he said. “I hope they’re not satisfied. We’re taking it step-by-step. We’ve hit a lot of team goals… hoping to cut the nets down at the end. We’re just letting God lead us through this journey. There’s gonna be some adversity and obstacles, we’ve already fought through those. They’re just really good kids, good basketball players. We’re just trying to take it one game at a time.”

The Patriots will face the No. 8 Temple Tigers at home Wednesday with the time to be announced this week. Should Southwest win, the semifinals will be held at Georgia College and State University in Milledgeville starting March 1.