The undefeated Upson-Lee boys (20-0) stamped their 52nd consecutive victory Friday night against visiting Mary Persons. As impressive as 52 straight wins, it is the resulting point margin that should cause concern to any team thinking about contending with the reigning champs this season. It was the second meeting between the teams and the rematch came on the heels Upson-Lee's runaway 76-46 win at Mary Persons on Dec. 5. That win, however, was pushed aside at the time because Mary Persons' leading scorer Cam Holden's was absence from the lineup for it. Mary Persons had Holden this time around and the result was the same, Upson-Lee crushing the Bulldogs 89-58 in front of their home crowd.
Upson-Lee opened with a 24-19 lead at the end of the first quarter and used a 25-4 scoring advantage in the second quarter to build a 49-24 halftime lead. Reigning Class AAAA Player of the Year Tae Fagan netted a game-high 31 points on an efficient 12-of-19 shooting performance from the field, and Cameron Taylor’s 17 points included 4-4 shooting from beyond the arc. Travon Walker hauled in a game-high 14 rebounds, twelve of which came on the defensive end.
Mary Persons shot just 3-of-18 from 3-point range and Holden led with 21 points.
The Bulldogs’ only two losses this season came to Upson-Lee and they might be meeting again soon in the Region 2-AAA tournament at the start of February.
Elsewhere in the classification, Americus-Sumter continues a strong start to 2018. After holding off Carver-Columbus in a 125-122 six-overtime thriller last week, Americus-Sumter scored a big 55-52 road win at Carver Saturday. Region 1 continues to crank up with Carver-Columbus, Westover, Americus-Sumter and Northside-Columbus positioned to take the top four seeds into the region tournament.
On the girls side, top-ranked Carver-Columbus cruised to a 76-41 win over Americus-Sumter last week and continues crushing the Class AAAA competition.
Baldwin is making its own noise and continues an impressive turnaround campaign. After finishing last year 17-11, the Braves are off to a 20-2 this year and have three solid wins in just the past week with Cross Creek, Richmond Academy and Washington County.
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