On Thursday night in Suwanee, The Wheeler Wildcats showed why they are the state’s No. 1-ranked team on the road against the No. 2-ranked North Gwinnett Bulldogs. The Wildcats leaned heavily on the clutch play of Jaylen Brown and Avery Patterson to edge the Bulldogs 61-58 in the Class AAAAAA quarterfinals.
The Wildcats (27-5), a No. 1 seed out of Region 5, are now on their way to the semifinals for the second year in a row, in search of the program’s sixth state championship and first since 2009. They’ll play the winner of Pebblebrook (Region 4, No. 1 seed) and Luella (Region 2, No. 1 seed) on Saturday at Georgia Tech’s Hank McCamish Pavilion. Tip-off for that game is 8:15 p.m.
For the Bulldogs, a No. 1 seed from Region 7, it was an end to a season that saw them win a program record 27 wins to just four losses, a year after missing the state playoffs entirely.
Brown led the Wildcats with 20 points – including making 7 of 8 free throws in the fourth quarter. Patterson overcame foul trouble and scored 18 points, including three 3-pointers and making all free throws after being fouled on another 3-point attempt.
The Wildcats never trailed, though North Gwinnett kept close behind most of the game, as the Bulldogs pulled to within 57-55 with 10 seconds left. But the Wildcats hung on, pulling off the victory just two days after a grueling triple-overtime victory over Dacula.
“(The triple-overtime game) really woke us up,” said Brown, a 6-foot-7 junior forward. “We just wanted to come out here and play hard and be aggressive. ... We’ve got to keep pushing. Forget being tired. Forget being mad. Forget being angry.”
The Wildcats opened both the first and second quarters on 7-0 runs, but couldn’t pull away. The Bulldogs’ Ahmad Caver kept the game close, scoring all of his team’s points in the second quarter (8) as Wheeler took an 18-17 lead into halftime.
The Wildcats once again started to pull away toward the end of the third quarter when a North Gwinnett technical foul led to two Patterson free throws, giving Wheeler a 41-31 lead. Brown then sunk a mid-range jumper as the third quarter buzzer sounded to give the Wildcats their largest lead of the game at 43-31.
The Bulldogs had another run left in them, however, with Caver and T.J. Howard combining for 26 fourth quarter points. With Wheeler leading 57-55 and with 9.9 seconds left, North Gwinnett was called for a flagrant foul off the inbound pass, and Brown sunk both free throws. On Wheeler’s ensuing inbound pass, Patterson was fouled and sunk two more free throws to put the game out of reach at 61-55 with 8.1 seconds left.
Caver drove the length of the court and sunk a 3-pointer as time expired to bring the score to its final margin. He led all scorers with 22 points.
Send Adam Krohn an email at AdamKrohnAJC@yahoo.com and follow him on Twitter.
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