Macon — It wasn't the way he expected it to happen, with his team's leading scorer watching from the bench. But Tanner Smith couldn't control that.

This was his time to lead. And so he did.

Jason Getz/AJC (ENLARGE)

Wesleyan's Howard Thompkins kisses the Class AA championship trophy. Thompkins sat out the second half after injuring his back in the closing minutes of the first half.

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The senior lifted Wesleyan to its first state championship in boys' basketball Saturday with 27 points in the Wolves' 61-43 victory over East Laurens. It was just the kind of effort Wesleyan needed after Howard Thompkins left the game with a bruised lower back late in the second quarter.

"I felt a lot of responsibility," Smith said. "I was in shock when he went down."

The win came just a short while after Wesleyan's girls' team won the Class AA title. Wesleyan became just the ninth school in state history to win boys and girls basketball titles in the same year, and the first since Southwest Atlanta Christian did it in 2006.

"They do it all the time," Thompkins said of Wesleyan's girls team, a regular championship contender. "It's even better for us to do it along with them now."

When the final buzzer sounded, Thompkins dropped to the floor of the Macon Centreplex, tears streaming down his face. At the other end of the court, Smith was mobbed by his teammates.

It was Thompkins who carried Wesleyan when an injury forced Smith to miss the region tournament. This time, Smith was happy to return the favor.

"We're a team," Smith said. "We won the region championship without me, and we just won this without Howard. Whoever says it's a two-man team, they're not watching very much basketball."

Wesleyan led 31-19 with under a minute to go in the first half. But with 21 seconds left, the game changed with a thud.

That was the sound of Thompkins hitting the floor awkwardly after going up for a rebound. The Georgia-bound senior winced in pain as he was helped off the court and back to the locker room.

Rather than imploding without him, though, the Wolves rallied. They led 45-37 after the third quarter and outscored East Laurens 16-6 in the fourth to make it look easy.

Wesleyan coach Skip Matherly credited Smith's leadership.

"Once the other kids saw him step up, it was like, 'OK, well if he can do this, I can do a little more, too,'" Matherly said. "It just snowballed."