Cedar Shoals junior forward Phlandrous Fleming scored 16 points and senior point guard Jerrick Mitchell added 12 points, leading the Jaguars to a comfortable 66-45 win over Mays on Thursday in a Class AAAAA quarterfinal game at Columbus State University.
Cedar Shoals, champion of Region 8, advanced to Saturday’s semifinals round to face the Allatoona-Southwest DeKalb winner.
Fleming, an athletic 6-2 combo guard, got off to a hot start, scoring 10 points in the first quarter, as the Jaguars jumped on Mays early. Mitchell made plays all over the floor, racing back to reject a Mays layup attempt and frustrating the Raiders with his quickness and ball-handling.
Mays junior point guard Reo Wright led the Raiders with 14 points, and senior forward Charles Arnold added 13 points.
The Raiders were down 11 with three minutes left in the first half, when coach William Faulkner elected to pull the ball out and run clock. With the lead, Cedar Shoals coach L’Dreco Thomas instructed his Jaguars to stay back in a zone and let Mays run down the clock. The Raiders ended up missing a shot in final seconds and went into halftime trailing 32-21.
Cedar Shoals scored the first six points of the second to take complete control and was not seriously challenged the rest of the way.
“I don’t the ball flowed well enough on offense,” Thomas said. “It did in the first half, but not as much in the second half.”
The Jaguars will stay in Columbus and practice on Friday, before Saturday’s semifinal round. Thomas said he’d like to see his team find some offensive continuity before Saturday.
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