Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

AMERICUS – From the start, the 17u Bucks took control early and dominated their way to a 72-48 thrashing of Stewart County HS (SC) to begin the next to last week of play in the Dwight Harris Boys Club Basketball League (DHBCBL) on Monday, July 8, at Americus-Sumter County Ninth Grade Academy.

The Bucks took an early 7-4 lead when Quevoluia Willoughby threw an ally-oop pass to his brother, Kanova Willoughby, who scored on a layup. That prompted a timeout by SC.

However, that would not stop the onslaught of the Bucks. They went on a 17-2 run to expand their lead to 24-6, which was capped off by a three-pointer from Marcus Durham.

SC was not able to cut into the Bucks’ large lead and went into halftime trailing 43-20.

The second half was not much different than the first as the Bucks continued to pound the SC team that only had seven players. The Bucks went up by as much as 30 late in the game. By this time, the Bucks’ players were having fun by trying to score on “ally-oop” slam-dunk plays.

In the 14u division, the score wasn’t much closer between the Thunder and the Bucks, but this Bucks team ended up on the short end. The Thunder jumped out to a big lead early and never let up on their way to a 66-36 win.

Four players scored in double figures for the Thunder. D.J. Hurley led the Thunder with 18 points and Ashton Pope scored 17. Cedric Smith and Jaseph Jordan scored 15 and 10 points respectively. The Bucks were led in scoring by Tracy Lamar’s 12 points. Braylon Terry scored nine and Chris Luster had seven for the Bucks in the losing cause.

The 11u game between the Warriors and the Raptors ended up being much the same as the 17u and 14u games were on Monday. The Warriors jumped out to a huge early lead and won easily by the score of 52-20.

Kentravious Waters led the Warriors in scoring with 18 points, while Briceton Terry led the Raptors in scoring with 14 points.

On Friday, July 5, the games were a little closer and more competitive. The fireworks kept going as the 17u Rockets came from behind to defeat the Raptors 66-63 in overtime.

Shomari Gaines, who plays his high school ball at Macon County, scored 21 points to lead the Rockets. “We played really hard and we played a really good team today,” Rockets coach Corby Moore said. “We tried to show them (the Raptors) that there’s a reason why we are number one.” The Rockets are currently in first place in the 17u division.

In the first half, the Raptors went on an 11-0 run to take a 34-23 lead with 2:08 left in the half and went into halftime up 36-28. Midway through the second half, the Rockets were able to cut their deficit down to four at 44-40 before Le”Shannon Ross nailed a three-pointer to put the Raptors back up by seven with just under 13 minutes to go in regulation.

With a little over two minutes left, the Raptors led 58-52 before the Rockets went on a 6-0 run, which was capped off with a basket by Gaines to tie the game. However, the game could not be decided in regulation and would have to go into overtime.

Gaines scored seven points in the extra session to help his team get the hard-fought 66-63-victory. Raptors guard Deonte Cross, who plays his high school ball at Schley County, had a chance to tie the game and send it into a second overtime. However, his last-second three-point attempt was off the mark and the Rockets were able to hang on and win.

Two other players scored in double figures for the Rockets. Zacheus Kendrick scored 14 points and Melton McCoy chipped in 11 for the winning cause.

The Raptors had three players in double figures. Jaheem Banks led the team with 19 points. Ross had 18 and Cross scored 16 in the losing cause.

In other action on Friday, the 11u Thunder got double-digit scoring from three players to lead the team to a 59-36 win over the 11u Warriors. Omari Woodard led the Thunder with 16 points, Javarious Scott scored 14 and Arthur Mays chipped in 13 points in the winning cause. Kentravious Waters scored 14 to lead the Warriors and Jermaine Curry chipped in 13.

On Sunday, July 14, there will be a game between the coaches of all of the teams in the DHBCBL at 4 p.m. at Americus-Sumter County Ninth Grade Academy.

Monday, July 15, will begin the last two days of regular-season play in the league. This will be followed by the playoffs of all four divisions, which will begin on Wednesday, July 17. The playoffs will culminate on Saturday, July 20, with Championship Saturday, as the championship games of each division will be played.