Northside-Columbus played a mighty tough region all season, so the Patriots weren’t going to walk into The Castle and be all but done before tipoff.
Northside-Columbus played a mighty tough region all season, so the Patriots weren’t going to walk into The Castle and be all but done before tipoff.
And midway through the first quarter, there was Northside controlling the tempo and leading 6-4.
“We came out slowly,” Upson-Lee point guard Zyrice Scott said. “We didn’t hit shots we normally hit. We were 2 for 17 from the 3-point line. That’s a big part of our game.”
Upson-Lee’s sluggish start continued for a few more minutes, and then the Knights scored on four of five possessions to double up the Patriots after a quarter. That continued with the Knights leading 30-15 at halftime en route to a 65-34 win Friday night in a GHSA Class AAAA first-round boys game.
The Knights (27-0) will host the Salem-Thomson winner in the middle of next week. Northside ended the season at 16-11.
Upson-Lee’s girls took up all the drama, winning their first playoff game in program history earlier in the evening, 67-62 over Westover of Albany.
The Knights boys have been consistent throughout the streak, but even winners of 59 in a row can have an off night.
“We weren’t mentally prepared,” Scott said. “We were sluggish. You can’t come into the game not mentally prepared.”
Head coach Darrell Lockhart would obviously liked to have seen a sharper performance, but didn’t see anything that bothered him too much, other than the subpar shooting after a week of only practicing following last Friday’s Region 2-AAAA tournament championship romp over Mary Persons.
“The guys were anxious to get going,” Lockhart said. “We passed the ball pretty good. We had some turnovers trying to get it there. We passed the ball, we rebounded well. We can take those two things out of it.”
Northside head coach Kenneth Lawrence knew what he was getting into, having gone against the Knights over the summer.
“We knew there were two things we couldn’t do,” he said. “We had to shoot the ball well. And we couldn’t turn it over.”
Well …
“We had 20 turnovers,” he said. “And we shot 20 percent.”
The Knights were up 22-15 with 1:23 left in the second quarter, and finished it with an 8-0 run, sparked by a Cameron Traylor 3-pointer.
The 15-point halftime margin was doubled on Travon Walker’s layup in the final seconds of the third quarter, thus invoking the mercy rule and cutting two minutes off of the fourth quarter, making it six minutes.
That made things a little more merciful and gave some backups quality minutes. The fourth quarter margin stayed within a possession or two of 30.
Walker, a highly recruited defensive end, led the Knights with 17 points and 15 rebounds, while Traylor added 14 points, five rebounds, and five assists. Tye Fagan got 12 points and 10 rebounds, and Scott had 11 points and seven assists.
Jalen Tucker topped Northside with 13 points while Jhaquez Anderson had 10.
And midway through the first quarter, there was Northside controlling the tempo and leading 6-4.
“We came out slowly,” Upson-Lee point guard Zyrice Scott said. “We didn’t hit shots we normally hit. We were 2 for 17 from the 3-point line. That’s a big part of our game.”
Upson-Lee’s sluggish start continued for a few more minutes, and then the Knights scored on four of five possessions to double up the Patriots after a quarter. That continued with the Knights leading 30-15 at halftime en route to a 65-34 win Friday night in a GHSA Class AAAA first-round boys game.
The Knights (27-0) will host the Salem-Thomson winner in the middle of next week. Northside ended the season at 16-11.
Upson-Lee’s girls took up all the drama, winning their first playoff game in program history earlier in the evening, 67-62 over Westover of Albany.
The Knights boys have been consistent throughout the streak, but even winners of 59 in a row can have an off night.
“We weren’t mentally prepared,” Scott said. “We were sluggish. You can’t come into the game not mentally prepared.”
Head coach Darrell Lockhart would obviously liked to have seen a sharper performance, but didn’t see anything that bothered him too much, other than the subpar shooting after a week of only practicing following last Friday’s Region 2-AAAA tournament championship romp over Mary Persons.
“The guys were anxious to get going,” Lockhart said. “We passed the ball pretty good. We had some turnovers trying to get it there. We passed the ball, we rebounded well. We can take those two things out of it.”
Northside head coach Kenneth Lawrence knew what he was getting into, having gone against the Knights over the summer.
“We knew there were two things we couldn’t do,” he said. “We had to shoot the ball well. And we couldn’t turn it over.”
Well …
“We had 20 turnovers,” he said. “And we shot 20 percent.”
The Knights were up 22-15 with 1:23 left in the second quarter, and finished it with an 8-0 run, sparked by a Cameron Traylor 3-pointer.
The 15-point halftime margin was doubled on Travon Walker’s layup in the final seconds of the third quarter, thus invoking the mercy rule and cutting two minutes off of the fourth quarter, making it six minutes.
That made things a little more merciful and gave some backups quality minutes. The fourth quarter margin stayed within a possession or two of 30.
Walker, a highly recruited defensive end, led the Knights with 17 points and 15 rebounds, while Traylor added 14 points, five rebounds, and five assists. Tye Fagan got 12 points and 10 rebounds, and Scott had 11 points and seven assists.
Jalen Tucker topped Northside with 13 points while Jhaquez Anderson had 10.
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