McIntosh coach Jason Eisele’s halftime speech won’t be repeated in public. But it certainly worked.
The Chiefs roared back from a 15-point halftime deficit behind senior point guard Will Washington and used some clutch free-throw shooting in the final minutes to finish off Riverwood 65-59 Friday in a thrilling Class AAAAA quarterfinal game at Columbus State University.
McIntosh advances to face powerhouse Miller Grove in Saturday’s semifinal round. The game tips at 8:15 p.m., at Columbus State, with a winner securing a spot in the state championship game next week in Macon.
“We’ve been looking forward to playing Miller Grove for two years now,” Eisele said. “We may have been looking past Riverwood to Miller Grove a little bit.”
If McIntosh wasn’t focused, Riverwood took full advantage, jumping out to an 11-0 lead. Junior forward Elijah Jenkins hit four of his five 3-pointers in the first half. Everything was falling for Riverwood in the first half, and the Raiders went to the locker room up 42-27.
Eisele unleashed on his team at halftime, and they responded.
“I can’t say (what I said) verbatim, but I got onto them pretty good,” Eisele said. “That’s the third game that I’ve felt that we’ve came out and played dumb basketball to be honest.”
The Chiefs wised up in the third quarter. Washington scored 14 of his 17 points in the third quarter, and McIntosh’s defense held Riverwood to just four points in the quarter.
Senior guard Jordan Lyons scored a game-high 24 points for the Chiefs, including a steal and a breakaway layup that put McIntosh up by four with four minutes to play. But the Raiders weren’t going away.
The game was tied 59-59 with two minutes to play. McIntosh hit six straight free throws, and senior Chase Walter threw down a two-handed dunk to seal the win for the Chiefs.
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