The Pebblebrook boys basketball team reached the semifinals for the first time in 2014 and followed that with runner-up finishes the next two years, but it had been unable to clear the quarterfinal hurdle the past four seasons.
That short drought is over now, as the third-ranked Falcons (25-3) defeated visiting North Gwinnett 75-58 Wednesday night to advance to a Class 7A final four matchup Saturday at Milton, which advanced with a 70-34 victory over Newnan. Milton is the No. 1 team in 7A and ranked in the top 10 nationally.
“It’s been a couple of years,” Pebblebrook coach George Washington said. “It feels really, really good. These guys deserve it, the coaching staff, the community, our principal. We’ve been through a little bit of adversity, but we’re here and we’re going to keep grinding. Hopefully you’ll see us in Macon next Saturday [in the state finals].”
Pebblebrook seized control with a 10-0 run late in the first half that turned a 28-24 deficit into a 34-28 lead. Andre Young and Tyler Shirley had two baskets each and Jamall Clyce added a layup during that stretch. North Gwinnett’s Thomas Allard negated some of the damage with a 3-pointer at the halftime buzzer to cut the lead to 34-31.
“The guy hit a big shot, a tough shot, at the end of the half, and the guys were really deflated going in,” Washington said. “But I told them, ‘Don’t worry about that. You guys went on a great run, and I’m proud of that run you guys made.’ We just had to weather that storm, and the guys executed very well tonight.”
Pebblebrook then outscored the Bulldogs 11-4 over the first three minutes of the third quarter to build its first 10-point lead. The Falcons made three 3-pointers - two by Danny Stubbs and one by Aaron Reddish - and a jumper by Clyce during the run that made it a 45-35 game with five minutes remaining in the quarter. Pebblebrook outscored North Gwinnett 19-11 in the third quarter and led 53-42 heading into the fourth.
“The thing we take pride in is the third quarter,” Washington said. “That’s the money quarter for us. And we played a great third quarter.”
Pebblebrook scored the first seven points of the fourth quarter and eventually got the lead to 64-44 on a jumper by Young with three and a half minutes remaining. North Gwinnett never got closer than 14 points the rest of the way.
North Gwinnett (21-8) led 14-13 at the end of the first quarter despite getting into foul trouble in what was a tightly called game. Three of the five starters had two fouls each in the first five minutes. One of those players, R.J. Godfrey, eventually fouled out with 6:12 remaining in the game. At the time, his 10 points were the most on the team. Brendan Rigsbee finished with a team-high 17 points, and Jordan Hancock added 11.
Pebblebrook had a balanced offense, with all eight players who got the majority of the minutes scoring at least four points. Stubbs led the way with 17, followed by Young with 13 and Reddish with 10. However, Washington was quick to point out the significant contribution of his other players.
“We watched probably 10 games of theirs,” he said. “We broke down all the sets and learned all the sets. I have to give a lot of credit to our scout team, the eight guys at the end of the bench that don’t play a lot. They ran every play that North Gwinnett ran, so our guys knew. They worked so hard to make us good.”
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