Rabun County’s Navy commit sinks Southwest’s hope to win first title

MACON — Rabun County, tucked away in the northeasternmost corner of Georgia, won its first state high school basketball championship on Friday afternoon, beating Southwest Macon 52-43 in the Class A Division 1 final at the Macon Coliseum.

“I don’t think they took us lightly, but a lot of times we don’t pass the eye test,” coach David Adcock said. “I’ll be the first to tell you that people don’t really understand how good my group is until they see it firsthand.”

The same is equally true about the first impression of senior point guard Huey Blalock, a 5-foot-9 bundle of ability and confidence. Blalock used his quickness, ball-handling skills and court acumen to help the Wildcats lead early and hold things together when it got tense.

“We’ve walked into several gyms and they look at us and laugh at us,” Blalock said. “But we get on the court and get a big lead. We just love it. We love being the underdog.”

Blalock, who has accepted an appointment to play at the Naval Academy, scored 29 points, making 11 of 23 shots from the field, with six rebounds, five assists and two steals. And the flair of the dramatic often surfaced, whether it was shushing the crowd or drawing an offensive foul, rising to his feet and tapping his index finger on his head. Blalock said he’s had a flair for style points for many years.

“He’s been that way since he was a kid,” Adcock said. “He just loves the game of basketball. He’ll die on that basketball court. That’s all he does. He competes every single play, and there’s never a moment that’s too big for him,”

Rabun County (30-2) also got 12 points and eight rebounds from Hayes Free.

Southwest (29-7) had a big home crowd, with fans packing the arena. But the Patriots struggled with shooting, making only 13-for-46 (28.3%), and made only half of their free throws (13-for-26).

Southwest was led by Chase Dupree with 20 points and Caron Howard with 13 points.

Rabun County quickly quieted the partisan Southwest crowd by taking a 9-2 lead and built a 17-5 lead after one period.

“It was very important for us to hit first,” Blalock said.

But Southwest soon got in the groove, with Dupree getting hot from distance. He tied the game at 19-19 with a free throw at 3:16. Rabun County collected itself and led 25-16 at intermission.

Rabun County rebuilt its lead to nine points with 2:40 left in the third quarter, but Southwest scored the final seven points of the period to cut Rabun’s lead to 37-35 going into the final quarter.

Southwest was within two points after a 6-0 run at 1:49 when Blalock took over. His field goal upped the lead back to four points, and he drew a foul at the end of the shot clock and made two free throws with 46.5 seconds to make it 49-43.

The championship was the completion of a quest for Adcock, whose father was a coach and won a state title in Alabama.

“We’ve been together since they were all 5 and 6 years old,” Adcock said. “I mean, I taught Huey in pre-K … I’ve known them all since they were in pre-K. It’s one of those things that we’re a family and they work their butts off.”

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