With stellar defense and a fast-pace transition game, No. 3 Crawford County is back in the Class AA state semifinals after beating Holy Innocents' 61-51 on Friday at Georgia College in Milledgeville.
The Eagles (25-3), a No. 1 seed from Region 4, will play the winner of Friday's nightcap, which features No. 2 Pace Academy and No. 1 Thomasville. The semifinal will be played at 8:15 p.m. on Saturday.
With the win, Crawford County eliminated the tournament's lone remaining No. 4 seed in the Golden Bears (20-10), who are from Region 6.
Now the Eagles are one step closer to returning to the state title game, where last year they were defeated by the Seminole County Indians. They got their revenge this year with an opening round victory over the Indians.
"We lost in the state last year so this year our goal is to go back again and win," said senior guard Monkeize Moore, who scored 13 points.
Holy Innocents' led 16-15 after the opening quarter, but the Eagles took a 29-26 lead to halftime and led all of the second half. They were effective at denying baskets down low, often blocking Golden Bears shot attempts to set up the transition game.
"We were just trying to get after people and get everyone to do their job with trapping and rotating like they're supposed to," Eagles coach Clyde Zachery said. "Sometimes we play pretty good defense and sometimes we don't."
Moore was one of the beneficiaries of the defense, scoring seven quick points on lay-ups in the third quarter, and getting fouled on one of them, to extend the Eagles' lead to nine points.
"When it was 2-on-1, I saw them playing the pass so I took it to the goal," Moore said.
Crawford County pulled away in the fourth quarter from the free throw when the Golden Bears were forced to foul, going 8-for-15 from the line.
The Eagles were led by William Jarrell (17 points), Marcal Knolton (14), Moore and Jeremy Raines (11 points).
Brent Duncan scored 22 points for the Golden Bears, followed by Cole Smith (12 points) and Jules Erving (10).
Credit: Stan Awtrey
Credit: Stan Awtrey
