Boys basketball
Class AAA basketball's top-ranked boys basketball program has suffered a blow after playing seven games this season.
Westside-Macon's leading scorer, 6-foot-11 Kentrevious Jones, has announced he will be transferring to Putnam Science Academy in Connecticut to ease his transition to playing for Xavier next year.
Jones' stay at Westside lasted just one semester after transferring from No. 2-ranked Central-Macon at the beginning of the school year.
Westside coach Josh Grube preferred to look ahead, instead of focusing on the transfer.
"We still have Khavon Moore, who is a five-star prospect, and we expect him to get things done and contribute more than he has already done," said Grube. "We have a lot of guys who we have a lot of confidence in. Trey Foster is another kid who we expect to do well. He has scored in double figures in the last three games, and we expect his contributions to go up. We have to replace Jones' 20-plus points and eight-plus rebounds a game, and I think we can."
Westside-Macon will travel to Atlanta Dec. 27-30 to play in the Tournament of Champions at Wheeler High School.
"It is one of the better tournaments in all of the country from what I have been told," said Grube, "There are some great teams from out of state and really good teams from Georgia in it, so we are gonna have our hands full going up there. But like I said earlier, we have a lot of confidence."
Girls basketball
The No. 2-ranked Beach girls team rallied past No. 1-ranked Johnson-Savannah 62-56 in overtime to win the Oglethorpe Square tournament title in Savannah.
According to the Savannah Morning News, Beach trailed by seven points in the fourth quarter, before Ja'brekia Bass took advantage of defenders in foul trouble and continually drove to the basket for several lay-ups to get the Lady Bulldogs back into the game.
Bass then hit a 3-pointer to send the game into overtime. Bass had an 18-point fourth quarter and finished the game with 24 points.. The Bulldogs kept applying pressure in overtime and pulled away with 1:22 left after Bass converted a 3-point play.
