Class 5A boys: Jonesboro 67, Loganville 61

“I have not been in a game like that where we were down by so much, especially in an environment like this,” Maehlman said. “It’s just a testament to how strong our kids are and how they’ve fought all year. They just never quit.”

Jonesboro (21-8) got 23 points from Devon Rainey, 18 from Malcolm Simmons and 10 from Kaymen Brown.

Loganville (18-11) was led by Region 8 Player of the Year Chris Dorbor with 17, Sherman Johnson with 12 and Jeremiah Rucker with 11.

Loganville, encouraged by a standing-room partisan crowd, could do little wrong in the first half and led 30-10 with 5:17 left in the second quarter after Dorbor’s three-point play. Loganville led 35-18 at halftime.

Jonesboro cut the lead to 11 with three quick baskets to open the third quarter and whittled the lead to 44-37 before Loganville went on a 7-0 run and entered the fourth quarter with a 53-41 lead.

That’s when Jonesboro picked up the pressure and scored the first eight points of the quarter. They tied it at 55 on a steal and basket by Rainey and took the lead at 3:31 on a bucket by Woods. Simmons added a dipsy-doodle score from under the basket to open a four-point lead. Loganville never got closer than two points the rest of the game.

“The game plan didn’t change,” Maehlman said. “It was effort. You could tell in the first half that they wanted it more than us, and my guys were just kind of there. The second half we came out and you could see that we wanted it more than they did. They were still fighting – and they fought hard – but we wanted it more.”