MACON -- The first half was a struggle for upstart Buford in the first Class AA boys semifinal Thursday evening, but it wasn’t a case of making any complicated adjustments.
So first-year Buford coach Allen Whitehart didn’t spend much time on a halftime speech.
“We picked them up and calmly told them what had to happen,” said Whitehart, whose club erased a 33-24 halftime deficit and advanced to the state championship game with a 63-59 win over Laney.
Buford (24-8) went more than four minutes without a field goal at one stretch in the first half, and Laney ripped off a 13-3 second-quarter run to build a 31-21 lead.
“I asked them if they were hungry, if they really wanted it,” Whitehart said, “and if they did, we had to buckle down, play defense, get the win. It was simple what we had to do.
"We had to cut off their driving lanes. We had to just be aggressive, suck it up and take care of business.”
Senior guard Zac Lynn quickly effected a hostile takeover, scoring eight points in the first 1:29 of the third quarter, keying a 10-0 run that got the Wolves (24-8) back in the game. Equally important, it purged the bad first-half taste from the Wolves’ mouths.
“We were kind of mad that things didn’t go the way we wanted, but we knew at the same time that we were going to make a run in the third quarter,” said Lynn, who finished with 15 points. “We knew the game wasn’t over. We just had to come out and play harder.”
T.J. Shipes scored 18 points to lead the Wolves, including an alley-oop dunk with 3:21 left that gave Buford a 57-50 lead. Jake Burnette finished with 11 points.
Rod Hall scored 20 for Laney (29-2), which took its last lead on Robert Turner’s basket with 4:30 left in the third period, but the Wildcats turned the ball over on four consecutive possessions, allowing Buford to close the quarter on a 9-0 run.
Buford twice led by eight in the fourth quarter and missed on a chance to push the lead to 10. The Wolves led 57-50 with 3:21 left before Laney made its final comeback push. Hall’s basket from the lane with 11 seconds left cut the Buford lead to 60-59.
Kyle Kellam made one free throw, and Burnette made two to ice the game for the Wolves, who held on for the victory despite making no field goals over the final 3:21.
“We knew we could do it,” Lynn said. “We knew that if we played our game, that we were one of the best teams in the state.”
Corinthians Brown added 14 points and Turner 10 for the Wildcats.
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