Boys: Pace Academy 75, Thomasville 48
The Thomasville Bulldogs held the No. 1 ranking all season long, but their run at the top is over after the No. 2 Pace Academy Knights - led by the nation's top player, Wendell Carter - beat them 75-48 in the Class AA quarterfinals on Friday at Georgia College.
The Knights (19-9), a No. 1 seed from Region 6, advance to play No. 3 Crawford County, Region 4's No. 1 seed, in the semifinals. That game will be played at 8:15 p.m. on Saturday at Georgia College.
The Bulldogs - Region 1's top seed - end their season at 26-2.
Carter showed why he's the nation's No. 1 overall-ranked player for the class of 2017 by recruiting services with a dominant performance that featured numerous dunks to send the crowd into a frenzy. He finished with a game-high 24 points and nearly had a triple-double with 11 rebounds and eight blocks. He also had five assists.
Friday's win pushes the Knights' record further into the win column after they began the season 2-8, losing to some of the state's - and country's - best teams, including Westlake, Greenforest, Providence Day (N.C.) and Brentwood (Tenn.).
"To come out here on the road and win by a big margin means our team is now coming together," said Carter, a 6-foot-10 junior. "We're starting to play like one."
The Knights, leading 33-24 at halftime, put the game away with a 22-8 run in the third quarter. The Bulldogs never got any closer than that deficit and trailed by as many as 29 in the fourth quarter.
For Knights coach Demetrius Smith, the game was won on the defensive end, which included containment of Bulldogs scoring threats and brothers, Reggie Perry and Alex Perry, both 6-foot-8.
"We can defend anyone in the state," Smith said. "That's how I feel. We went out and defended. We played man for the whole game and we felt like our inside play was better than theirs, and we felt that if our guards could neutralize their guards, we'd be fine."
Barrett Baker added 17 points for the Knights, including three 3-pointers in the first two minutes of the third quarter that helped to put the game away. Zach Kaminsky had 14 points and Isaiah Kelly had 11 points and five rebounds.
The Perry brothers were Thomasville's only double-digit scorers. Reggie, only a sophomore, finished with 16 points while Alex, a senior, had 12.
